Police in New South Wales have reported that 400,000 juvenile Sydney rock oysters were stolen from an oyster farm in Scotts Creek, Oxley Island. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

About 320 bags of juvenile oysters, worth an estimated $350,000, were taken from an oyster farm in Scotts Creek earlier this year, according to NSW police. Officers received a report of the theft on Tuesday morning and are urging members of the public with CCTV or dashcam footage to come forward.

Latitude 31 Oyster Co, which runs a Sydney rock oyster farm on Manning River adjacent to Scotts Creek, confirmed it had been the target of a "massive" oyster theft that had been reported to police. In a social media post, the business wrote: "Oyster theft impacts far more than just the individual farmer. It affects our businesses, our families and the reputation of the entire NSW oyster industry."

The business urged the community to look out for anyone who is trying to move, or has suddenly come into possession of, a large quantity of cocktail or bistro-sized oysters. The stolen oysters were not ready for immediate sale and would need to be grown for another four to six months.

Oyster farmer Gary Rodley, who owns Tathra Oysters on the NSW south coast, said fully grown oysters could be worth significantly more, estimating they could fetch about $1.50 to $2 a piece. The age of the stolen molluscs and the amount taken suggests the culprit could be a fellow producer, he said.

"That's not a theft where someone's getting a feed of oysters," he said. "That's disturbing to think that it might be one of our peers in the industry. It's a very high-risk activity that person's carrying out, and I would fancy that they would come unstuck very quickly doing that sort of thing."

A Manning River oyster farmer, who wished to remain anonymous, said there had been a recent shortage of the coveted Sydney rock oyster. Major flooding in 2021 and 2025 wiped oyster stocks in the region, and because Sydney rock oysters are farmed on a three-year cycle, it could take another two years before farmers' incomes stabilise.

"The worst case scenario is it could be someone within the industry that has had a shortfall, who has gone past that area of the river and knows it only gets used certain times of year, and they've gone 'they'll never know until they get back'," he said.

Theft is not uncommon in the Manning River area, but when he has been targeted, his oysters were taken by locals who had all year to scope out the area. The farmer took the issue into his own hands and bought an artificial oyster with a tracker from France that cost more than $2,000. It allowed him to take a thief to court in 2022, where the culprit was fined $500.

Many oyster farmers, including Rodley, have bought surveillance equipment to act as a deterrent as demand for Sydney rock oysters has grown. "They're a rare oyster that only grow up and down the New South Wales coastline, so they're a very, very small percentage of the world's oyster crop," he said. "It's regarded as probably the best flavoured oyster in the world by a lot of people – they're a very flavoursome oyster and highly regarded as a table oyster that's eaten natural."

A crime scene has been established and police investigations are ongoing.