Although difficult to assess the full damage of fresh water flooding for oyster farmers in the area, blatantly obvious are the 20 or so silage bales that ended up on Pambula Lake Tuesday evening.
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"This is just what happens in an event like this unfortunately. The farmer has been working with us to remove the bales. He's also just lost all his fencing," said Sapphire Coast Wilderness Oyster Association's environmental coordinator Rebecca Hamilton, who has been supervising the clean up in Pambula Lake.
Ms Hamilton and oyster farmers, like Broadwater Oysters, with leases impacted by the bales have come together with Batemans Bay Moorings and Barges to retrieve them.
Contracted hours have been been utilised with financial support from Local Land Services recovery funds to use cranes and barges to extract the bales due to their sheer weight when inundated with water.
All the bales were removed from the lease holdings as of Thursday 1pm, however other bales remain wedded into other areas of the lake.
"Our main priority at the moment is the lease areas to minimise the impacts on the oyster farmers," Ms Hamilton said.
"We can't know the extent of the damage yet. Some areas have been completely decimated and others may pull through. It's depends on what way the water was flowing."
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To add to losses for oyster businesses in Pambula, a mandatory 21-day closure of farms due to a sewage spill in the area was scheduled to be lifted on Thursday, the same also recently occurred in Merimbula.
Caroline Henry from Wonboyn Rock Oysters thought it would take at least three to four weeks before Pambula and Merimbula farmers would be able to sell again.
At Wonboyn it might still be another five to six weeks before a full flushing has occurred and salinity levels restored.
She said while oysters could live in fresh water for about three to four weeks, depending on how healthy they were, many would not survive. This is especially so for vulnerable juvenile stock called spat.
Ms Henry said she had also lost pumps due to the inundation.
"For a lot of farmers there will be big infrastructure and stock losses. If you lose oysters or machinery, you can't insure them. I think it's because while we are always working near water there is a risk of floods."
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Ms Henry said Northern Rivers oyster producers have been hit even harder and so for this to happen just before Easter meant there would probably be slim pickings this year.
Ms Henry said it was a huge blow for the South Coast industry already struggling with losses from bushfires and reduced tourism due to the pandemic.
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