Australia has been commercially farming oysters since the late 1800s. Fast forward to today and the industry now has 3200 aquaculture leases in NSW, spread across 41 coastal estuaries with three species of oysters grown - the Sydney rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata), Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) and the native, flat oyster (Ostrea angasi).
Considered the canary of water estuaries because they survive by filtering up to five litres of water every hour and are sensitive to changes in the waterways, oysters and their farmers have had a difficult time over the past ten years, particularly here in our own Port Stephens area.
