Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies researcher Dr Sarah Ugalde entered the national Pitch It Clever competition for early career researchers.

Dr Ugalde explained her research via a short video and was announced the winner during the Higher Education Conference in Canberra earlier this month.

RELATED STORIES:

This win will raise the profile of POMS research and the impact it has had on the oyster industry, Dr Ugalde said.

“I am extremely honoured to receive such an important award which supports the communication of critical research.”

“I’d like to thank my colleagues in the POMS research and the oyster farmers who are working with us to find solutions to the disease during what are very challenging and difficult times for them,” she said.

The institute’s research into POMS began after the disease was first detected in January 2016 and is funded by the federal government through the Cooperative Research Centre CRC-P Future Oysters.

Before the 2016 outbreak, Tasmanian oyster farms produced around four million dozen oysters each year, with an estimated farm gate value of $24 million.

In addition, Tasmanian hatcheries were supplying around 90 per cent of the oyster spat grown on farms in Australia.

In her video submission, Dr Ulgade explained that the oyster farms where POMS was first detected in 2010 were “almost completely wiped out”.

“When POMS attacked the oyster it affects the abductor muscle. Once this happens the oyster can no longer keep tightly closed and is exposed to the environment and predators,” she said.

“Eradication of POMS in the natural environment is not an option. The only thing we can do is learn to manage it.”

Dr Ugalde and her institute colleagues Dr Christine Crawford and Lewis Christensen worked with oyster farmers on a number of research projects aimed at improving understanding of the disease and developing the most effective responses to it.

The winning entry was produced with support from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and Millstream Productions and can be watched at www.thinkable.org/submission_entries/48d627q1