The Nature Conservancy Australia (TNC) has launched round two of a program for Dawesville and Mandurah community members to grow shellfish to boost the health of the local estuary.
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Round 1 of program, run last year, was a great success. Community members and school groups, with the support of the Bindjareb Indigenous Rangers, grew 250kg of mussels.
These mussels are now filtering water and providing food and shelter for other marine species.
Project leader Richard Campbell said the group had a target of 500kg of mussels this year, which should be achieved within six months.
"The shellfish reef will provide a myriad of ecological benefits," Mr Campbell said.
"This includes water filtration through the feeding of shellfish and other invertebrates that colonise the reef, one large well established shellfish reef could filter up to 2 billion litres of water per year.
"The reef will also form a marine habitat that binds sediment, creates food and homes for may invertebrates and fish and supports foraging fish, dolphins and seabirds."
It's a great opportunity for residents and community members to get involved in improving the health of the estuary.
"It is also a chance to have your own mussel garden and watch the mussels and other animals associated with it grow over the year," Mr Campbell said.
Using specially-designed 'baskets', volunteers will maintain their gardens and provide TNC with important information about how mussels grow in the Peel-Harvey Estuary through their custom designed mussel app.
At the conclusion of the trials, TNC will collect the mussels and place them on specially designed reefs in the estuary.
"The mussels will be collected in a big community celebration event, The Mussel Muster.
"The gardeners will bring their baskets to a location and we will harvest them all with the Bindjareb Ranger group and Cockburn Sound aquaculture operators to prepare the mussels in special "cotton socks" and place them on the reef with a dive team," Mr Campbell said.
The project aims to develop a self-sustaining reef community with many species being supported.
The role that the shellfish reefs play in supporting the healthy estuary is important but is not designed to resolve all the management challenges with the estuary.
TNC is working with government agencies such as the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation in supporting the implementation of the Bindjareb Djilba: Peel-Harvey Estuary Catchment Management Plan, which looks at implementing environmental, social and cultural actions throughout the catchment system, rivers and estuary to drive ecosystem health and resilience.
To become a volunteer, you must live on or have regular access to a private residential jetty in the indicated areas on the map below.
Volunteers will need to undertake monthly monitoring sessions which take 30-45 minutes, to record information and submit through the provided app.
For those who don't have mobile devices we can record the monthly monitoring on paper based report card.
Interested gardeners can contact their local TNC coordinator at shellfish.gardens@tnc.org to register their interest. For any other queries people can contact Richard Campbell from The Nature Conservancy during office hours on mobile 0488 253 618.
