POMS: where is the Pacific Oyster industry now?

From Fish magazine, September 2019:

When Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome (POMS) all but wiped out southern Tasmania’s Pacific Oyster (Crassostrea gigas) farms in February 2016, there was a very real fear the industry, nationwide, was facing long years in the wilderness. The devastating impact of POMS on New South Wales growers in 2010 – Australia’s first outbreak of the disease – was still fresh in the minds of oyster growers around the country. The French and New Zealand experiences with POMS, caused by the Ostreid herpes virus 1 (OsHV-1), also suggested a five to seven-year recovery period.

And Tasmania was not the only state affected. As the provider of 90 per cent of the oyster spat used in South Australia and NSW (see breakout), the Tasmanian outbreak severely affected growers in these states too. But just three years on, producers in SA and Tasmania are nearing pre-POMS capacity, and production systems are leaner, more efficient and more ambitious than ever.

This comparatively speedy recovery is the result of industry foresight and proactive research efforts, frequently funded by the FRDC, that followed the first outbreak in Sydney’s Georges River, NSW. Read more.