Group makes troubling 1,300lb discovery floating in busy waterway: 'It's a massive problem'

Among 1,300 pounds of trash collected from the Brisbane River in Australia, one category stood out to the cleanup crew.

As Yahoo News reported, a volunteer team from the Clean4Shore group removed 92 oyster baskets in just one day. The rest of the trash included the usual suspects, such as plastic bottles, outdoor furniture, and tires.

However, the connection to Australia's booming oyster farming business stood out. The group also planned to return to collect even more of the remaining baskets.

"Oysters grow in baskets along these strings, and they might put 30 to 40 baskets along them," Clean4Shore founder Graham Johnston told the publication. "The baskets are just left."

When severe weather hits or the nets become worn, these plastic baskets covered in oysters often end up in natural areas. 

"If we don't pull them out of the water, no one does," Johnston added. "It's a massive problem."

It's terrible news for the oysters, too. When they become unbound, they go out to the edges of the water, where they die. 

Considering oyster farming is big business in Australia, this problem is unlikely to go away. According to NSW Oysters, New South Wales alone generated $59 million worth of the creatures between 2018 and 2019.

Meanwhile, oysters play a valuable role in cleaning up waterways. They can filter out over a gallon of water per hour by eating up food waste, sludge, and algae. Additionally, waste from the baskets and other sources threatens many of the other creatures found in these waterways.

"It's where they eat," local resident John Grant told Yahoo News. "We've got critically endangered animals here."

While groups like Clean4Shore are taking on much of the burden, local officials stressed that the responsibility lies with oyster farmers. However, officials' encouragement might be going unheard based on this recent example.

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