The Nautical Nerds
Giving the Reef a Billion-Oyster Spa Day
The Nautical Nerds
Giving the Reef a Billion-Oyster Spa Day
About Nautical Nerds
Our Mission
Rebuilding the Reef’s Natural Filter System
We’re The Nautical Nerds, a bold, science-driven nonprofit restoring the Great Barrier Reef’s lost oyster reefs, nature’s original water filters. Our mission is to bring back the living reef foundations that once kept Queensland’s waters clear, balanced, and full of life.
Before colonisation, dense oyster reefs stretched across Queensland’s river mouths and coastlines, forming natural breakwalls that stabilised shorelines, created vital marine nurseries, and filtered billions of litres of water each day.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, industrial dredging and shell harvesting by early settlers removed more than 99% of these reefs, stripping them for lime, mortar, and road base to build coastal towns and ports. The loss was catastrophic, and the reefs never recovered.
Without them, sediment and nutrients now pour into the Reef unchecked, clouding the water, fuelling algal blooms, and weakening coral resilience.
We’re changing that.
Our goal is to restore entire oyster reef ecosystems across Far North Queensland, rebuilding enough habitat to support more than 1 billion native Blacklip Rock Oysters (Saccostrea echinata) within the next decade. These oysters will filter out pollutants, capture carbon, and bring life back to our coastal waters, naturally repairing what was lost.
🦪 Did You Know?
In Chesapeake Bay (USA), restored oyster reefs increased fish and crab populations by over 300%, improved water clarity by more than 40%, and filtered billions of litres daily — enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool every minute.
The Billion Oyster Project in New York Harbor has already restored over 100 million oysters, turning once-dead waters into thriving ecosystems again.
🌱 How We Work
Shell-Based Reef Restoration
We recycle oyster shells from local restaurants, cure them to remove pathogens, and strategically layer them at key river mouths - creating permanent, interlocked reefs where oyster larvae can settle and grow. These shellbeds kickstart the natural reef cycle again in areas where oyster populations were wiped out over a century ago.
Oyster Filtration Systems
We deploy juvenile Blacklip Rock Oysters in baskets suspended on adjustable longlines. These are positioned in nutrient and sediment hotspots - such as the Burdekin, Herbert, and Johnstone rivers - where oyster filtration can have the greatest impact on water quality.
Smart Monitoring Tech
Every oyster line is fitted with real-time sensors to measure water clarity, nutrient levels, temperature, and oyster survival rates. Additional sensors are deployed out on the reef and upstream to track how floods, temperature shifts, and rainfall affect the entire system. This tech gives us live data - and answers.
🦪 Did You Know? One adult oyster can filter up to 160 liters of water per day. Multiply that by a billion and you're talking trillions of liters of cleaner ocean every week.
Why Oysters?
Because they work - better than anything else.
Unlike other restoration methods that take years to see impact, oysters deliver fast, measurable results. Just 100,000 oysters can filter up to 20 million liters of water daily, removing dissolved nitrogen, sediment, and algae-driving pollutants. Compared to mussels, seagrass, and artificial filters, oysters are unmatched.
Blacklip Rock Oysters are native, disease-resistant, and thrive in the warm, turbulent waters of Far North Queensland. They tolerate cyclones, resist parasites, and grow rapidly in high-nutrient conditions. This makes them the perfect bioremediation species for restoring the reef's balance - naturally.
Our Billion Oyster Spa Day movement isn’t just about oysters - it’s about community, hope, and giving nature the tools to heal itself.
🦪 Did You Know? Unlike farmed oysters for food, our oysters are never harvested. They remain in the water for life, working 24/7 to clean and heal the reef.
Our Impact
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🦪 Restoring Reefs, Reviving the Reef
In our first 12 months, we’ll deploy 500,000 native Blacklip Rock Oysters (Saccostrea echinata) across Far North Queensland’s river mouths. Together, they’ll filter up to 40 kilograms of nitrogen and more than 2,000 kilograms of sediment every year, creating cleaner water, healthier corals, and thriving fish nurseries. Visible results will come in months, not decades.
Most oysters will be placed on reconstructed natural reefs, built from recycled shells and rock rubble to rebuild the living oyster beds that once protected the Great Barrier Reef. Where natural reefs can’t yet be rebuilt, we’ll use floating longlines and baskets to keep the cleanup going while nature reclaims its foundations.
By Year 3, our hatchery and marine operations will scale to produce and deploy over 100 million oysters a year, setting the stage for a billion-oyster spa day, a natural water filtration system operating 24/7 along Queensland’s coast.
By Year 10, we’ll reach 2 billion oysters restored, forming the largest oyster-based reef restoration in the Southern Hemisphere. Our ultimate goal is to work ourselves out of a job by rebuilding self-sustaining oyster reefs that continue filtering, protecting, and restoring water quality long after we’re gone.
💧 Did You Know?
Each year, Queensland rivers dump around 15,000 tonnes of nitrogen and over 5 million tonnes of sediment into the Reef lagoon. Blacklip oysters are one of the only scalable, natural, and self-sustaining solutions capable of filtering that pollution, safely, continuously, and at massive scale.
Join the Movement
Join the Movement
Join the Movement
We’re not just rebuilding oyster reefs, we’re bringing the Great Barrier Reef back to life, one oyster at a time.
The Billion Oyster Spa Day isn’t just a campaign. It’s a growing movement of people who believe the Reef is worth fighting for, and that healing it is something we can all take part in.
Every oyster we restore helps filter the water, rebuild lost ecosystems, and strengthen the Reef’s natural defences. But this isn’t a job for scientists alone. It’s for anyone who loves the ocean, divers, fishers, farmers, students, families, and reef communities united by one goal: to leave the water cleaner than we found it.
You can be part of this change.
🌱 Donate to help us grow and deploy more oysters.
🤝 Partner with us to recycle shells, restore coastlines, or fund local reef projects.
🧤 Volunteer at restoration events and help us rebuild the reefs by hand.
📣 Share the story every conversation spreads awareness and brings us closer to lasting impact.
Together, we can restore 1 billion oysters, rebuild the Reef’s natural filtration system, and prove that community-powered restoration can heal the planet’s most iconic ecosystem.
Because saving the Reef isn’t just an idea, it’s a movement.