When the flooding rains hit northern NSW, farmer Todd Graham knew his baby oysters were in trouble.
Three million baby oysters, or spat, were delivered to farmers on the Macleay River just days before the floods, but the heavy rains soon meant the water was not salty enough for the oysters, which were only a few millimetres long.
"They need salt water to survive. The little ones won't survive in that sort of water," Mr Graham told AAP.
For several days Mr Graham and another oyster farmer drove the spat about an hour by road to a nearby creek "to give them a drink for two hours a day, to keep them alive".
But they needed a long-term solution, so the farmers put out a mayday to the National Marine Science Centre at Coffs Harbour, which has direct access to the ocean.
Aquaculture operations manager Stephan Soule stepped in and put his hand up for some "babysitting" duties.
The oysters were then delivered to the Southern Cross University facility, where they are being looked after until the river is safe for them.
"The waters were getting very diluted and obviously they needed to move their oysters out of that environment," Mr Soule told AAP.
"We were happy to help and we had the capacity, but this is not normal.
"They'll get a bit of TLC over the next couple of weeks and hopefully the Macleay will clear up and they'll be able to be returned back to the estuary."
The oyster farmers still visit their babies a couple of times a week to clean the tanks where they are kept.
"After we put them in the tanks and we were getting in the car to drive back I just looked at (the other oyster farmer) and said, 'How are you feeling?'" Mr Graham said.
"He had a smile on his face and he looked like he was standing taller."
In human years the spat will be the age of a young child by the time the water in the Macleay is safe for them to be returned.
It's a day Todd Graham is looking forward to.
"If we can bring them back here that means the river is coming good," he said.
When they do eventually make it home not all the oysters will survive, only three-quarters usually make it to adulthood. Oysters are generally a couple of years old before they are ready for human consumption.
Mr Graham, who is also the chair of the NSW Farmers Oyster Committee, said while flooding would have a short-term impact on oyster supply in NSW, he did not expect a long-term effect.
But he said it could take years for farmers in the flood-hit north of NSW around Ballina to recover.
Mr Graham said it had been a challenging two years for the NSW oyster industry, with bushfires and floods affecting water quality.
He said being able to save the baby oysters had been a blessing.
"We put three million oysters up there (the National Marine Science Centre)," he said.
"We most probably would have lost them all if we'd have kept them in the river."
