SoundHAB: Extensive PSP closures in Puget Sound

[Jack Rensel]

Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 


Closure of area shellfish beds prompts worries over health


By Curt Woodward

The Associated Press

OLYMPIA - The worst red tide in perhaps a decade has shut down shellfish
beds all along Puget Sound and prompted serious public-health worries, state
officials said Wednesday.

Expanded beach closures have not reached the heart of Washington state's
large farmed-shellfish industry, and the state said commercial shellfish on
the market have been tested and should be safe to eat.

But industry officials worried that more bad news could further damage
businesses already reeling from a separate bacterial outbreak.

The state Health Department said the newest round of closures means
virtually the entire shoreline from Everett south to the Nisqually River
just north of Olympia is off-limits for shellfish harvesting.

The eastern Kitsap Peninsula also has been affected, along with areas near
Port Gamble, Port Ludlow and along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, said Frank
Cox, a Health Department marine-biotoxin coordinator.

"I don't think we've ever had anything quite to this scale," Cox said
Wednesday. "I'm concerned if people ignore these warnings, we could wind up
with people with illness, if not worse."

Scientists were particularly worried by high levels of the toxic organisms
called Alexandrium, which produce powerful neurotoxins that cause paralytic
shellfish poisoning in humans. Those organisms are present in blooms of
algae that thrive in warm, calm summer weather.

Paralytic shellfish poisoning can be fatal, but Washington state hasn't
recorded a death since three people were killed in 1942. The latest serious
illnesses were recorded in 2000, when several people were sickened - some
even paralyzed - after eating contaminated shellfish near Gig Harbor, Cox
said.

Cooking does not eliminate the toxins, and people should be extremely
careful when harvesting shellfish on public or private tidelands, officials
said.

The large bloom of toxic algae also was worrisome for the state's shellfish
farmers, who battled a recall of raw oysters last month after a separate
outbreak of vibriosis, a bacterial illness.

Shelton, Mason County-based Taylor Shellfish, the West Coast's largest
farmed-shellfish producer, lost about $150,000 a week in live-oyster sales
because of the bacterial outbreak, spokesman Bill Dewey said.

"It'd be a shame if we just got relief from the vibrio to get shut down for
red tide," Dewey said.

Copyright C 2006 The Seattle Times Company

To check the latest shellfish harvesting closures anywhere in the state
visit the marine biotoxin Web site at www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/sf/biotoxin.htm

 or call the Department of Health Biotoxin Hotline at 1-800-562-5632.

 

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

J.E. Jack Rensel Ph.D.

Rensel Associates Aquatic Sciences

4209 234th Street N.E.

Arlington Wa 98223

jackrensel at att.net

360-435-3285

Cell  360-631-6538

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.whoi.edu/pipermail/soundhab/attachments/20060824/c2365237/attachment.htm