Bivalves of South Australia — native shellfish mapping
This is an interactive reference tool built by Eyre Lab for Restoration Ecology to consolidate native bivalve presence data across South Australia's gulf and coastal systems. It brings together three types of information in one place: live field survey records, active restoration program sites, and georeferenced historical shellfish reef data digitised from the primary scientific literature.
The map is intended as a working research and communication tool — not a regulatory or navigation product. All data should be interpreted with the caveats described below.
Layers button (top right) — opens the layer list. Toggle any layer on or off. Each layer that is switched on opens a panel on the left side of the map with source information, site counts, and relevant data notes for that layer.
Info panel — shows detail for the most recently activated layer. Use the ✕ button to close it. The panel updates each time you activate a different layer, so you can switch between layers to read about each one.
Survey sites layer — the live field data layer. Once toggled on, the panel shows a species lens row (switch between species or view a composite of all) and status filters (show/hide Present, Uncertain, Absent, No data markers). Click any map marker or site card to see full site-level detail.
Basemap toggle (header) — switches between Satellite imagery (default, best for habitat context) and Ocean (Esri/GEBCO bathymetry, better for geographic overview in presentations).
About this map button — you are here.
Survey site markers use both colour and shape so the map remains readable for people with colour vision deficiency:
Historical reef markers (Martin et al. 2025) use coloured squares: brown for Ostrea angasi, teal for Pinna bicolor, purple for Malleus meridianus. A gold border indicates a multi-species record that appears in more than one layer. Gillies et al. 2018 harvest-evidence markers use triangles, colour-coded by evidence tier. A persistent legend is visible at the bottom right of the map at all times.
Field survey sites were assessed by Brian McQuillan and Manny Katz, volunteering with Eyre Lab for Restoration Ecology, in support of an independent researcher conducting oyster genetics work along the SA west coast. Surveys covered the Eyre Peninsula, Streaky Bay, and Ceduna regions, 2024–2026.
Three assessment methods were used, and each site record retains its method tag:
Status follows a 4-tier scale. Present requires an in-water positive ID. Uncertain covers all indirect evidence. Absent requires an in-water survey with no detection. No data means the site has not been assessed for that species at all — it is not the same as Absent.
Martin, B., Huveneers, C., Reeves, S. & Baring, R. (2025). Reviving shellfish reef socio-ecological histories for modern management and restoration. Ocean & Coastal Management 261:107540.
Coordinate data from supplementary file mmc2.xlsx. Filters applied: O. angasi records use high-confidence, ≤1950 or undated only — post-1950 records are excluded because the dredge-era population collapse makes later records ambiguous without corroboration. P. bicolor and M. meridianus use high-confidence records with no date cutoff, as too few records exist to justify further filtering.
Coordinates are digitised approximate positions, not surveyed locations. ⚠ Known source inconsistency: Gillies et al. 2018 Table 1 lists P. bicolor distribution as WA/NT/QLD/NSW, omitting SA — but the same paper's body text and Comments column explicitly confirm SA gulf occurrence. Martin et al. coordinates for this species are used here and are considered reliable.
Gillies, C.L., et al. (2018). Australian shellfish ecosystems: Past distribution, current status and future direction. PLoS ONE 13(2):e0190914.
Coordinate data from the paper's Figshare repository (dataset 5766144, updated 12 Jan 2018), filtered to the SA bounding box. Species are not differentiated in this dataset — records cover O. angasi and S. glomerata combined. Evidence tiers: Tier 1 = locality name only; Tier 2 = harvest record corroborated (sourced from an unlabeled sheet in the Figshare file — tier assignment inferred by numeric reconciliation against the paper's own figure counts; this inference is flagged in the layer info panel); Tier 3 = three independent lines of evidence.
The 25 Reefs Project is an Ostrea angasi reef restoration program operating across SA gulf systems. Site locations and started/proposed status were sourced from published program communications and the project website. Coordinates for proposed sites are centroid-level approximations only. Recruitment data where recorded was sourced from program monitoring reports.
All species labels use Latin binomials for consistency with the primary literature and to avoid regional common-name ambiguity (e.g. "flat oyster," "mud oyster," and "Port Lincoln oyster" all refer to Ostrea angasi depending on context). The Brachidontes / Mytilus spp. field is flagged as taxonomically unresolved — voucher specimens would be needed to determine whether records represent B. erosus, B. rostratus, Trichomya hirsuta, or Mytilus galloprovincialis, all of which are formally recognised as SA ecosystem-forming species (Gillies et al. 2018 Table 1).
Eyre Lab for Restoration Ecology — a youth-led restoration ecology nonprofit operating on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Field data collected by Brian McQuillan and Manny Katz. Map developed with assistance from Claude (Anthropic). Base cartography: Esri, GEBCO, NOAA, OpenStreetMap contributors.