The coasts of southern Australia were once stacked with shellfish reefs. The native oysters of these reefs cleaned our coastal waters, and the reefs provided protection from storm surges and fed many local fish species. Sadly, they’ve been all but destroyed. But you can pledge to help rescue our forgotten reefs, starting now.

The coasts of southern Australia were once stacked with shellfish reefs—reefs comprised of native Angasi oysters, mussels, and other bivalves. These reefs provided our coastal communities with protection from storm surges, and gave food and shelter to local fish species such as snapper and black bream.

Most critically, the Angasi oysters of these reefs used to clean our coastal waters—just one of these shellfish can filter up to a bathtub’s worth every day.

Our native shellfish reefs helped keep our coastal waters clean, our communities safe from storm waves, and our bays and estuaries teeming with marine life. But sadly—especially for the 19 million Australians who live near our southern coasts— these reefs are almost gone.

Dredging and destructive fishing gear, overharvesting of oysters, and chemical pollution have nearly done away with Australia’s shellfish reefs.

While Australians and national and international organizations have focused decades of energy and resources into saving the Great Barrier Reef, we’ve neglected our less-glamorous but closer-to-home—and also critically important—native shellfish reefs.

But that neglect ends now, with our ambitious work to turn rubbish into reefs. The Nature Conservancy Australia has undertaken to rescue our forgotten reefs at an initial six sites along the coasts of southern Australia. Recycling discarded mussel, scallop and oyster shells from local restaurants while partnering with Fisheries Victoria to grow Angasi oysters, we’ve begun to rebuild these forgotten reefs atop limestone rock foundation we’ve laid in Geelong Arm and Hobsons Bay in Port Philip Bay. It’s truly amazing to consider how each baby oyster we settle serves as a tiny but essential building block to rescuing our forgotten reefs from total extinction.

Native baby oysters are now quietly growing in their ancestral home, and in just six years, these fledgling reefs will be fully functioning as established reefs. In the years to come, we hope shellfish reefs will once again clean and buffer all of our local bays, and provide a thriving ecosystem for fish, seabirds, and rare underwater creatures like sea dragons.  

But that depends on people like you. Please, pledge to help Australia’s coasts and rescue our forgotten reefs, the shellfish reefs in our own backyard. If we act now, we can rebuild upon the fragments that remain—oyster by oyster—and restore our southern coasts to the healthy, clean glory they once enjoyed.

This holiday season, please make a pledge to help Australia’s coasts and rescue our forgotten reefs now.

Image Credit: © The Nature Conservancy (Erika Nortemann)