NW oyster industry navigates turbid tides

A BILLIONAIRE, government agencies, industry experts and traditional owners walk into a room.

They all have the same vision – to establish a new industry in Western Australia. With that kind of backing, it sounds like a sure bet.

Throw into the mix the fact the product they are trying to grow is already in abundance naturally, and the industry has been successful in the past.

However, efforts to start a commercial oyster industry in the state’s north-west have been anything but easy.

The Andrew Forrest-backed Harvest Road made headlines in August when it revealed its Carnarvon oyster project had been pulled from the water in early 2023 due to a natural steinhausia parasite rendering the product unsellable.

“Very little is known about steinhausia species, including the different species, their lifecycle and whether they can cause significant disease or under what circumstances,” a Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development spokesperson said.

“Testing by DPIRD ruled out regulated and reportable diseases and results suggested the cause of any increased oyster mortalities at the Carnarvon site may have been multi-factorial, including a range of host and environment factors.”

It was a major blow to Harvest Road’s idea to use the tropical waters to accelerate growth of up to 20 million baby oysters before finishing them off in Albany.

Mixed success for grant funding

That came after a trial near Exmouth, also funded by the state government’s regional economic development scheme, to grow out natural oysters in the gulf failed in late 2022 due to disappointing growth rates, according to a government spokesperson.

Both projects were awarded a combined $208,500 in 2019, with the Harvest Road trial deemed successful in November 2022.

“Like any new venture, particularly a primary industry venture culturing plants or animals in a new location, aquaculture development in the north-west faces multiple challenges to overcome,” a DPIRD spokesperson said.

“Managing biofouling (other marine organisms attaching to oyster farming equipment such as baskets and ropes) in the warmer waters of the north-west has proved to be one of the major challenges.

“Projects in the Northen Territory and Queensland (using the same species of tropical rock oysters as occur in WA) are more advanced and are showing potential for commercial viability of oyster farming in northern Australia, including a way to manage biofouling.”

Proponents of the Exmouth project did not respond to requests for comment.

These efforts off the Gascoyne Coast followed a 2016 Department of Fisheries-commissioned study, which identified five potential edible oyster sites in Shark Bay, Carnarvon and Onslow.

The hope in this study was that WA could prize some of the east coast’s lucrative rock oyster trade over to this side of the country.

Miaboolya Beach, 12 kilometres north of Carnarvon, was identified as the best option canvassed because of its ideal temperature and relatively low heavy metal contamination risk, though this was still noted as an issue.

Fast forward to today and a site, not identified in the 2016 report, has emerged as the industry’s great hope.

The third big government-backed edible oyster project is situated on the shorelines of Murujuga, near Karratha. It has experienced a rocky road but remains promising.

Pilbara hatches a plan

The genesis of the Murujuga project can be traced back to darker times in the Pilbara. In late 2014, the bottom fell out of the mining construction boom at the same time oil prices tanked.

Thousands of Pilbara residents lost their jobs in the space of a few months and, such was the nature of industry at the time, there were few options for job seekers but to leave town.

Diversification became a major focus for all tiers of government.

The dice was rolled on, and funds sunk in to, research on agriculture, solar salt, potash, value-adding to existing industry and aquaculture in the form of edible oysters.

A Pilbara Development Commission push to grow out an oyster industry quickly gained a head of steam and soon found itself backed by Maxima Opportunity Group and Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation.

Alongside the abandoned Sahara Forest Project tomato farm, it was the big idea which caught the imagination of the public and backing of the people who could make it happen.

“When you look at the east coast, urban development and competition for space meant there’s not a whole lot of room for oyster industry development,” Maxima general manager Steven Gill said.

“When you look in the north-west of Western Australia there is massive development potential, with huge areas untapped or undeveloped.

“So, we looked at that and said, ‘yep, there’s a real opportunity here for developing a vibrant industry’.”

Maxima was not going into the project without any experience.

The company has spent three decades growing pearl oysters in the Kimberley, which Mr Gill said was crucial in giving the Murujuga project a real shot at succeeding.

Backing from Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation has also helped.

The labour-intensive oyster industry was seen from the outset as a golden opportunity for Indigenous employment and rangers have helped with site selection, research and monitoring.

For the first few years there was commentary that commercialisation was just around the corner.

On the cusp of success

Growth rates and taste are now proven but a final product has so far been elusive.

“They have been eating the oysters off the rocks up there for a very long time and understand how good a product it is,” Mr Gill said.

“It is now about turning that into a commercial opportunity.

“It has been a long road; there’s no doubt we look to the east coast, and we see the mature industry over there and say, ‘you know, let’s just do that’.

“But the uniqueness of the Kimberley and the Pilbara in terms of higher water temperatures, massive tidal variations and a whole lot of other factors have made it a longer-term project than we were probably initially hoping.”

After seven years of research and development the project has one final hurdle holding the oysters back from restaurant tables and seafood markets.

The warm waters of the north-west mean oysters grow more quickly than their east coast counterparts but they are also more susceptible to biofouling.

Biofouling occurs when baby oysters and barnacles grow on the oyster shells which, while not affecting taste, make the product unsightly and smelly.

Access to spat (juvenile oyster) also looms as a problem once production does ramp up.

WA has two main hatcheries, at Albany and Hillarys, and interstate facilities have a commitment to look after their own regions first.

Business News understands there is concern the state’s existing hatchery capacity is not sufficient to grow an industry to a sustainable size.

“The state government has a long history of supporting the development of a viable shellfish aquaculture industry in WA, including establishment of the Albany Aquaculture Park in the mid-1990s, construction and commissioning of the Albany Shellfish Hatchery in 2018 and the declaration of the Albany Aquaculture Development Zone in 2020,” a DPIRD spokesperson said.

“More recently the state government committed $3.6 million to the expansion of the Albany Shellfish Hatchery to increase its capacity to support the rapidly expanding shellfish aquaculture industry.”

As for the parasite which thwarted Harvest Road, Mr Gill said the company was alert but understood it was unlikely to be an issue for the tropical species.

And while the Carnarvon project is on the rocks, Harvest Road said it was too early to call it a day.

“The business is assessing the potential for further aquaculture trials and research and development at the Carnarvon sites,” a spokesperson said.

“We are committed to the long-term development of the aquaculture industry in Western Australia.”

Outside of the main plays, there are a few other projects of interest in the north-west.

Oyster trials spread out

Maxima, which has another edible oyster play at its home base in Cone Bay, 90km north of Derby, is investigating a site near Broome and has expanded the Pilbara trial to Cossack and West Lewis Island.

There is also a project sitting right on the 26th parallel, which has flown under the radar. Shark Bay (Gutharraguda) is an intriguing prospect as an oyster production zone.

The two Shark Bay sites in the 2016 report were found to pose a heavy metal contamination risk.

Proximity to threatened species such as dugongs and competition with other industries were also mooted as areas in need of management if an oyster project were to be established.

The real kicker: its two test cases, a 60,000 and 100,000-oyster production, were found to be economically unviable even with government assistance.

“Even if the state government was to invest in pre-development technical studies, environmental approvals, Aboriginal heritage clearance and basic civil works, the project still produces a significant ongoing cash deficit,” the report said.

An earlier 2004 government report also labelled commercial oyster production in the world heritage area as “not considered good” due to limited suitable intertidal and nearshore sites and lack of competitiveness compared with pearl oysters.

But those predictions have not stopped people trying. Harvest Road showed interest in a site on the Wooramel Coast in 2017 which, after gaining environmental approvals, was touted as a 250-worker operation if trials paid off.

And the Shark Bay Aquaculture-led World Heritage Oysters project has set up in Shark Bay using spat from the Albany shellfish hatchery.

The company’s 400-hectare aquaculture site is trialling tropical and Sydney rock oysters in Nanga Bay’s intertidal zone.

Its owners declined to comment.

Onslow on the eastern coast of the Exmouth Gulf has also come up in conversation from time to time.

It was part of that 2016 study but was found to be at high exposure to adverse weather.

Contamination from international shipping and competition with other industry were also noted as risk factors.

Development along the north-west coast is largely being driven by industry now, backed by research completed this year through a $570,000 Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australia grant.

“Overall, the (federal) government has invested $1.2 million in northern Australian tropical rock oyster research and development,” Northern Australia Minister Madeleine King said in April.

“This industry has the potential to support hundreds of jobs and create hundreds of millions of dollars of additional economic output in northern Australia.”

Those jobs have been front-of-mind since day one.

Long-term, sustainable and labour-intensive industries are the holy grail for regions reliant on resources and tourism – fields which can provide rivers of gold but go south with little warning.

Those still in the game are confident, albeit a little more quietly these days, the years of setbacks and successes will soon pay off.

Findings from DPIRD’s research will be published by the end of the year.

The agency plans to produce more spat next year to refine hatchery protocols and support trials and has funnelled $6.5 million into an aquaculture development plan to support investment in the industry.