Fisheries flex to bulk up Jervis Bay Mussel Farm
Serious questions surround the March 20 approval to increase commercial mussel farming in Jervis Bay Marine Park, despite dramatic footage from local divers of unusual mussel blooms dominating locations throughout the bay.
by Cat Holloway /
(with reporting from Lucy Robertson)
Even contradictory science and a majority of formal opposition did not stop South Coast Mariculture’s expansion.
According to Evan Christen of Our Future Shoalhaven (now Jervis Bay Marine Park Alliance), the mussel farm expansion was "pushed ahead, rammed through" despite common knowledge of the danger mussel farming poses to surrounding marine habitats because of the difficulty of controlling spawn.
"They are risking the Golden Goose that lays the eggs," Christen said.
"Jervis Bay and the Marine Park brings in hundreds of thousands of visitors and millions of dollars every year.
"These mussel farms are a crazy ideological push from Fisheries because they don't care about Marine Parks.”
Rod Sleath, one of several local SCUBA divers who recently raised the alarm with underwater photographs and video showing mussels blanketing some reefs, said he was "shocked and depressed" that government departments ignored so much observational evidence.
"I would hazard a guess that there are now hundreds of thousands of mussels in some areas "downstream" from the mussel farm, given the prevailing clockwise currents in Jervis Bay," Sleath said.
Sleath believes Jervis Bay marine life “leaves the Great Barrier Reef for dead.”
“But my biggest fear is 10 years down the track all of the shallow reefs of Jervis Bay are covered in an invasive species of mussel.
“It seems highly coincidental that this has never happened before, but is now happening just a few years after commercial production of mussels started.”
"I naively assumed they would at least pause and undertake some study into the mussel populations appearing in large colonies where Jervis Bay divers with 40 years of experience had never seen them," Sleath said.
"The public consultation was a joke - they do it just to say they have consulted. Then they go ahead and do exactly as they planned anyway.
In September 2024, the Minns Labor Government announced it would double the size of the aquaculture sector to $300 million by 2030 “through innovative research, continual investment in breeding programs and a commitment to water quality improvements.”
The roadmap to this target included “opening up new areas for marine aquaculture (mussels, oysters, algae)” and “streamlining aquatic biosecurity rules to facilitate access to interstate spat supply.”
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) began working towards aquaculture in Jervis Bay even before the (then) Director of Fisheries, Geoff Allan announced in 2012 that he was seeking to lease 50 Jervis Bay hectares to a commercial producer.
In 2015 South Coast Mariculture (SCM) won that tender to farm mussels and in 2021 achieved its first harvest.
SCM Executive Director is Sam Gordon and his parent company is Blue Harvest, a seafood marketing firm whose Jervis Bay Mussels brand is sold in mainstream retail outlets including Woolworths, Coles and Harris Farm. SCM’s operations include the Jervis Bay farm, processing plant and the Twofold Bay operation that supplies the “spat” (juvenile mussels) to Jervis Bay.
You say Galloprovincialis, I say Planulatus.
Gordon and DPIRD maintain that mussels’ tendency to “boom and bust” was a natural cycle and not a problem.
He said the mussel farmed in Jervis Bay was called Mytilus galloprovincialis but was actually the native mussel Mytilus planulatus, or, more likely, a genetic hybrid that looked so similar it was difficult to identify.
Seafood marketing is heavily dependent on consistently naming products. Jervis Bay Mussels are commonly called 'blue mussels' which, according to the Sydney Fish market guide, were previously known as Mytilus edulis then changed to Mytilus planulatus.
But Fisheries (DPIRD) and university scientists refer to them as Mytilus galloprovincialis.
“We need more scientific rigour, not jumping at shadows,” Gordon said of the community's concern about the mussels impacting Jervis Bay Marine Park’s ecological balance.
On that, Gordon and local divers agree.
However, the SCM expansion was approved without scientific confirmation of the biological safety of the species being farmed or spat brought in from Twofold Bay.
“Put yourself in our shoes - we’ve spent $18 million investing in this farm,” Gordon said.
“And how are we going to feed the world? If you Google ‘top ten most sustainable foods’, you’ll find mussels.”
However, Google “top ten most invasive marine species” and number one on the list is European Green Crab which is an identified “significant biosecurity risk” in Twofold Bay, where Jervis Bay Mussels originate.
The crab, Carcinus maenas is, according to Fisheries, an introduced Class 1 Noxious Species implicated in the decline of several shellfish industries in the US and a potential risk to NSW oyster industries.
Also, the mussel grown in Jervis Bay, M. galloprovincialis, is on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) list of the "100 World's Worst Invasive Species".
The invasive nature of M. galloprovincialis, which produces four times the spawn of other Mytilus mussels, is not new information, having been studied internationally for three decades.
Well before mussel farming began in Jervis Bay, studies in 2019 by University of Queensland (UQ) School of Biological Sciences researcher Dr Iva Popovic, found both the Mediterranean and Atlantic variations of M. galloprovincialis had steadily taken over Australia’s coastlines.
In the 1970s, M. galloprovincialis invaded more than 2000 km of South Africa's open coast and remains a significant threat to biodiversity there.
UQ’s Associate Professor Cynthia Riginos said the invasive M. galloprovincialis may have caused the genetic pollution of the closely related Australian native mussel species.
“Our work also shows that Australia hosts its own Mytilus species, but interbreeding between the invasive and native species is extensive,” Riginos said.
“The influx of non-native genes is called genetic pollution, and can sometimes lead to the formation of so-called hybrid swarms, and possibly extinction via hybridisation.”
This scientific confusion and disagreement over which species is being farmed is the heart of this controversy and the source of most community fear for the future of the Jervis Bay Marine Park.
“It’s a moot point anyway,” diver Rod Sleath said.
“This is happening, we (divers) can see it where others can’t - the worst infestations are in areas only accessible by boat.
“Read the legislation. You can’t do anything in a marine park that is going to damage the integrity or change the ecosystem…that’s why the marine park was put there.”
Jervis Bay Marine Park Alliance (JBMPA) wrote in a letter to the Minister for Agriculture, Tara Moriarty, that disregarding underwater video evidence of mussel blooms was “tantamount to saying the divers are lying.”
It asserted that:
“Jervis Bay Marine Park is the most inappropriate location for the farming of M. galloprovincialis, a species that is considered highly invasive, due to its quick rate of spread and its ability to displace and outcompete native mussels.”
It urged immediate and decisive action “before the marine ecosystem of one of Australia’s most loved and most visited Marine Parks is irreparably harmed.”
The alliance also asserted that, because new mussel colonies documented were vulnerable to open water currents, wind and waves, it was impossible to control the spread of spat.
“There is the potential for spat to impact other fishing industries such as the oyster farms at the mouth of the Shoalhaven and Crookhaven Rivers, which is just 5 km away from the Marine Park border.”
JBMPA’s March 2 letter was copied to many including NSW Environment Minister, Penny Sharpe, Federal Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, and the Member for South Coast, Liza Butler.
But Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann, in State Parliament last week, questioned Moriarty who said the department was “working to undertake genetic analysis” and had “implemented a three-year spatfall monitoring program.”
Mussel Scientists Muzzled
JBMPA detailed a long list of regulatory failures that have resulted in “degradation to the aquatic ecosystems within the marine park and is also threatening the marine environs of Booderee National Park, with potential to spill beyond Jervis Bay.”
According to JBMPA, the process exposed a conflict of interest in the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD).
“DPIRD is the initial applicant for the mussel farm as well as the applicant for the expansion. [It] also undertook the Environmental Impact Assessment [and is] also the Regulatory Authority responsible to ensure that Marine Park Regulations are complied with.”
“Why weren’t Marine Parks and local DPIRD marine research scientists asked to respond to the mussel farm application and modification?
“And if they were, why isn’t this response public?
“This ‘silence’ … is highly suspicious. One would expect the people that know the ecology of that site best are the Marine Park staff and marine scientists that work there.”
Spark approached DPIRD scientists and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) for information, but was redirected to the media team for the Department of Planning Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI).
(As hard to write as it is to read, sorry.)
Huskisson-based Fisheries scientist, Matt Rees was not permitted to speak to media. (Spark will try again for comment from Jervis Bay’s Senior Research Scientist, Dr Nathan Knott, in the next article in this series.)
DPIRD declined to answer specific emailed questions but confirmed the mussel farm’s required spatfall monitoring program would begin within six months.
Since the early day of Jervis Bay Mussels production, local boat operators, divers, snorkellers and beachcombers have noticed increased mussel spatfall. The shellfish settled in thick clumps on boat hulls, in engine outlets, on beaches and reef outcrops within and outside of Jervis Bay Marine Park.
Jervis Bay Divers Club reported that mussels had already displaced the “communities of corals, sponges and hydrozoans, and represented a significant and ongoing change in the benthic biota”.
ABC Illawarra reporter, Romy Gilbert, first highlighted community concern in December 2023. In February this year, she again covered local divers’ “grave concerns” about an “explosion” of mussels on multiple shallow reefs.
"We're seeing complete coverage of reefs from the surface down to three metres and in some areas down to 8m," diver Rod Sleath told the ABC.
But the Department played down concerns from divers, residents and ecologists, holding firm on the position that “the mussels farmed are not exotic but native to Jervis Bay Marine Park.”
However, documents from the submissions process reveal that more dissent over the mussel species in Jervis Bay came from within the Department of Planning.
Three letters were signed by Michael Saxon, the South East Branch Director of the Biodiversity and Conservation Division now within the Department of Climate Change Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) but, when he first flagged concerns, was in the Department of Planning & Environment.
The letters (including the contact, Susan Crocetti, Principal Policy Officer Marine) expressed serious reservations about the risks of using potentially contaminated spat of an invasive species.
The letters argue that to bring, release or cause the introduction of any exotic animal or plant into a marine park is against the law.
“It is our understanding that the species being cultured is Mytilus galloprovincialis, which is not indigenous to the marine park, and can compete with the indigenous species Mytilus planulatus,” Saxon's first letter states.
“DCCEEW recommends that South Coast Mariculture be required to use Mytilus planulatus for seeding to mitigate “potential impacts on ecosystem structure and species richness”.
“It is possible that the continued supply of larvae from the culture of mussels in Jervis Bay into the future may continue to seed new populations and may result in similar trends to Twofold Bay.”
“Once populations establish, study results indicate Mytilus galloprovincialis can outcompete other epifaunal organisms for space, suggesting that an increase in Mytilus galloprovincialis populations … may have long-term impacts on the ecosystem structure through the reduction of species richness.”
In July 2024, Saxon wrote again:
“DCCEEW recommends that prior to expansion of the farm, additional studies are undertaken to understand the impacts of farming M. galloprovincialis over M. planulatus with consideration to thermal tolerance and behaviour under climate change driven warming oceans.”
“Alternatively, it may be preferential to move to hatchery production and seeding of M. planulatus to support re-establishment of the native M. planulatus.
“This would decrease biosecurity/translocation risks of harvesting mussel spat from Twofold Bay.”
He also noted that the proposed program to monitor spatfall did not include a pathway to fix any problem.
“Spatfall research needs to be done prior to the expansion.”
“Widespread spatfall poses a significant risk to the ecological integrity and function of the marine park and is inconsistent with the objectives of the Marine Estate Management Act 2014.
On August 28, 2024, Saxon’s Biodiversity and Conservation division again sought more expert research and examination of mussel middens, highlighting the risk that “continuing to breed a potential European invasive species is exacerbated by climate change”.
“In our opinion, the scientific literature makes it clear that M. galloprovincialis is not native.
“We note however that DPIRD has a different interpretation.”
Saxon criticised the “Threat and Risk Assessment” for being based on 2017 activity instead of future expansion of aquaculture.
The final letter to DPIRD sought a change to the condition for South Coast Mariculture to “require” harvesting before spawning, removing the clause, “where possible”.
“This would all but eliminate the risk of spatfall.”
DPIRD rebutted the DCCEEW position - and all the submissions in opposition - approving the Jervis Bay mussel farm's expansion on March 20 this year.
The Precautionary Principle
SCM Executive Director, Sam Gordon said that the expansion of the mussel farm was “compensation” for DPIRD mistakenly granting one of the original leases with “incorrect GPS coordinates” inside Naval territory, meaning SCM needed to move their farms slightly, at its own cost.
The expansion adds 20 hectares to three existing mussel leases in Jervis Bay, up from the 50 hectares originally approved in 2020 as a State Significant Development.
Of the 47 public submissions regarding the mussel lease expansion, 33 were objections and seven others made comments, all of which were either negative or asked for more research before approving an expansion.
All those submissions came from Jervis Bay locals.
Only seven submissions supported the farm’s expansion and, interestingly, all supportive submissions were from people well outside the Jervis Bay area. In fact, six of the seven supporters were not even from the Shoalhaven region.
Seven other submissions came from local and state govt agencies - many extremely detailed.
The criticisms raised included anchoring, mussel faeces, water quality, entanglement or behaviour changes of other animals, Aboriginal heritage, disease, noise and view impacts.
The risks from translocated spat from Twofold Bay were raised by several parties including JBMPA and Our Future Shoalhaven who criticised DPIRD for ignoring its own referenced scientific advice not to bring spat from Twofold Bay, Eden because of the high risk of introducing diseases and pest species into Jervis Bay, such as the European Green Crab.
But the biggest and most confusing concerns were over the “invasive” species that was being farmed and the lack of control of spatfall.
Rod Sleath said the government must apply the ‘precautionary principle’ within the Marine Parks Act.
“If there is doubt, we should pause - because we cannot risk the ecology of a place as important as Jervis Bay.
Our Future Shoalhaven/JBMPA are currently exploring legal avenues for the community to appeal the department’s decision to expand Jervis Bay mussel farming.
(Next in this series exploring Jervis Bay Marine Park, Spark will cover South Coast Mariculture's operations and report on the company's perspective on sustainable aquaculture.)
