A giant clam garden in North Queensland is the most recent victim of February’s monsoonal rainfall.
Up to 3,000 live giant clams have died off James Cook University’s Orpheus Island Research Station, after the water quality was significant reduced, due to run off from a creek following extensive rain and flooding.
The garden was planted at the edge of Pioneer Bay by JCU researcher Drs John Lucas and Rick Braley in 1986, with the reduced salinity in the water leading to a mass die off.
Orpheus Island Research Station Manager and marine ecologist Jenni Calcraft has lamented the loss of thousands of the live giant clams at the well-loved site.
“These giant clams are in shallow water and at times completely exposed, so they basically just had a freshwater lens over them for two to three weeks during this heavy rainfall event,” she said.
“They basically would have just suffocated with the freshwater lens, and then they probably would have starved as well,” Jenni Calcraft said.
The Clam Garden was popular for snorkeling, with the garden around 40 years old.
