Sea of ash the latest body blow for oyster farmers

Oyster farmers Nick Thorne and Anita Saeck say bushfires and floods could cost them a third of their yearly turnover.

Tuross Inlet oyster farmers Nick Thorne and Anita Saeck amid the flood waters and ash sediment brought on by recent bushfires and torrential rain. Picture: Jane Dempster

Oysters farms across NSW could be impacted for months and oyster­ prices may rise after the weekend’s heavy rainfall washed bushfire ash sediment into waterways, potentially leading to ­contamination.

It comes as the industry is still reeling from the economic impact of the summer’s bushfires during the prime season for oysters, with tourists numbers on the south coast down significantly.

Nick Thorne and Anita Saeck, who own Tuross Inlet Oysters south of Batemans Bay, said bushfires­ and floods could cost them $50,000, a third of their yearly turnover.

“It’s unprecedented,” Mr Thorne said as he stood among a mass of ash and flotsam that had washed into the inlet overnight.

“It smells like a wet ashtray down here, it’s horrible,” Ms Saeck said. “It’s never been like this … all this floating scum and sediment.”

The couple took out a lease on 2ha of water in 2015 and have about 500,000 oysters in ­rotation. They were already hard-hit by the bushfires, having to close down for three weeks over Christmas after roads in and out of the area were blocked, preventing their deliveries to Sydney.

Ahead of last weekend’s deluge­, they harvested as many oysters as they could. While they’re hopeful, it will be an anxious waiting game to see whether their oysters remain healthy.

“There will likely be some dead oysters from the contamination,” Mr Thorne said. Ms Saeck said oyster prices might increase because contamination would reduce supply.

Theirs was one of many estuaries along the state’s south coast that suspended harvesting in January because of ash run-off.

Since the recent downpour, the state government’s food authority closed further estuaries, including on the central coast. Farmers are hoping for respite but further showers are forecast for the south coast and central coast this week.

Caroline Henry, who harvests Sydney rock oysters at Wonboyn Lake, near Eden, NSW, is hoping to test the water quality in coming days and reopen at the weekend.

“We don’t know how hard the ash will impact on the oysters and how much debris will actually increase the nutrient load,” she said.

“It might actually be six months before we know the impact of the bushfires and the big rain following it. We could have more rain, which would be more algae. And there is still a lot of ash and debris on the surrounding land. It’s only when you’re bringing in the oysters to sell that you’ll see what the impact has been.”

The chief executive of Aust­ralia’s Oyster Coast, Mark Allsopp, said his business was monit­oring its closed estuaries weekly to decide when it could begin harvesting again, but it was too early to tell when that could be.