Queensland's struggling oyster industry could get the boom it needs with plans to improve the survival rates of a rapid-growing disease-resistant oyster which thrives in warm waters.
The tropical Blacklip oyster species could help open up Queensland's coastline for oyster farming and replace the disease susceptible Sydney Rock oyster, which is grown in the state's south-east corner.
Griffith Australian Rivers Institute's Carmel McDougall is working on bringing the oyster, which is currently only farmed on a small scale, to commercial reality, an idea she said came from oyster farmers.
"There is interest in developing this other species and one of the other drivers for this is the Sydney Rock oyster gets a lot of disease, they really struggle in Moreton Bay actually trying to grow these oysters," Dr McDougall said.
"The disease isn't one that affects humans...it just means the animals die off in the summer periods when it gets warmer.
"The Blacklip doesn't succumb to the same disease???.so the interest is in looking at whether or not it survives in Queensland conditions."
Dr McDougall said the Queensland oyster farm industry was largely based on the Sydney Rock oyster, which is either imported from down south or grown in Moreton Bay and as far north as Hervey Bay.
"For the farmers in Moreton Bay at the moment it would give them an alternative to the Sydney Rock oyster which they currently grow," she said.
"The Blacklip grows a lot faster as well, which is something favourable for the industry, it would reduce their turnover time and it would also enable new oyster farms to pop up in more northern areas."
While Dr McDougall doesn't eat oysters herself, she said she has been told the Blacklip oysters were very similar to Sydney Rock Oysters.
"Apparently there is no difference between the two, it is really well accepted by consumers and if you look at them, they essentially look the same except the shell just has a bit of a black margin around the outside of the shell," she said.
"People already eat them in the northern parts of Queensland so clearly they like them."
Dr McDougall said her project was to look at improving the survival rates of Blacklip oyster larvae at the critical three-week point when they are ready to settle down and metamorphose.
"At the moment we are working with an oyster farmer in Bowen who is sending us some brood stock of the Blacklip which we then spawn in the hatchery," she said.
"We are looking at the question by using genetics, we are trying to look at what genes are expressed differently the Blacklip oyster and the Sydney Rock oyster at the stage where the Blacklip oyster is really dying off in the hatcheries.
"We are hoping that will give us a clue as to why this might be happening, as to whether it is a problem maybe with the algae we are feeding them, or maybe it is problem with the temperature or the salinity.
"Whether it is an environmental problem or whether it is a dietary problem and then we can start to play around with our protocols in the hatchery to try and make sure they get through in decent numbers."
She said her research could open up the industry to the rest of Australia.
"Most of our oysters are imported from southern states and so there is the Sydney Rock oyster and the Pacific oyster," she said.
"We are looking also at the potential for it to be grown in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
"It would open up the whole northern coastline of Australia."
Dr McDougall said she would be working in association with Aquafarms Queensland to experiment with a batch of Blacklip oysters in Hervey Bay in October when spawning starts.
