In May 1992, and again in March and April 1993, the Royal Australian Navy, specifically HMAS Tarakan, was involved in the translocation of tens of thousands of clams as part of Operation CLAMSAVER. The clams were moved from a successful breeding program at Orpheus Island to various locations on the Great Barrier Reef, including to Grub Reef.
I am grateful to Jon Daly for providing me some photographs from that time.
Daly wrote: “The guy in the top image is Paul Livermore … photograph of Tarakans tank deck covered in plastic scallop shaped children’s paddling pools a continuous spray from the ship’s fire main … I’m in the blue t-shirt. [end quotes]. And I have more notes from other conversation with Jon Daly, for another time.
There appears to have been little if any follow-up, to know the fate of the clams.
Considering the photographic evidence from Jon Daly, the clams were not much more than30cm in length when they were moved. How big are they now?
As part of the inaugural Megafauna Expedition – with the charter of the MV Sea Esta funded by Sydney-based philanthropist Simon Fenwick – we set off for Grub Reef on Wednesday, 4th September.
The skipper, Paul Crocombe, did some careful research and reconnaissance in advance of the expedition and was able to find one of the translocation sites.
Despite the blustery conditions, strong surface current and the ever-present risk of colliding with a one of the many bombies, Paul got the MV Sea Esta safely into Grub Reef and the team close to one of the translocation sites.
Good job!
Underwater photographer Jenn Mayes with her scuba buddy Nadine Huth found and photographed the largest clam at 1.47 metres. Congratulations!
And so, the winning photograph in the expedition’s photographic category ‘largest clam’ is by Jenn Mayes and shows Nadine Huth holding the metre long ruler across one of the clams saved by the Royal Australian Navy.
The same clam is shown in the feature photograph at the very top of this blog post.
To be clear, this is one of the clams saved by the Royal Australian Navy as part of operation CLAMSAVER.
There is so much more to tell, about that day at Grub Reef and how it unfolded, even a whale shark encounter for Dave Armstrong.
Rick Braley, who was involved in the original translocation effort, asked that we measure some clams, and that was not only done by the photographers with their yardsticks, but the underwater team also had a tape measure. The mean length of the clams measured on the first dive with the tape measure was 1.11 metres (n=6), and on the second dive was 0.91 (n=8).
And Jenn Mayes found more than clams at Grub Reef, even a slipper lobster on the night dive, filmed by Stuart Ireland.
UPDATE
Paul Livermore and others from the Navy who were involved in operation Clamsaver have been in touch following my related social media post. And so, I have more historic photograph, for a future blog post. Paul Livermore is so pleased to know that their baby clams are now all grown up. The relevant Facebook post is pinned to the top of my official Facebook page, ’tis here: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferMarohasyOfficialPage/
Fran says
Onthe half shell with a beer !
Dr Phillip Chalmers says
The only credible explanation I can find for the “endangered species” designation is human harvesting – overexploitation – and hence the initial secrecy about location of their destination.
Were all species designated, were specimens of all species included in the breeding programme and subsequent re-distribution?
All the sources quoted in a Google search name climate change as their primary threat. May we now declare that this is another claim debunked by actual evidence from the sea floor?