Warnings on oysters – Multiple sources.

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Al Bergstein

Oysters are considered an aphrodisiac, but what happens to them in hot weather isn’t so sexy. Warm air and water during summer make an ideal environment for a natural bacteria called vibrio parahaemolyticus to grow in oysters. Raw oysters, especially ones with the bacteria, can make people who eat them sick. Gina Cole reports.

Raw oysters risky during warmer months  http://www.goskagit.com/all_access/raw-oysters-risky-during-warmer-months/article_67523d12-e37a-11e2-bc29-0019bb2963f4.html

See also: Be vigilant about illness from tainted commercial shellfish, B.C. doctors told http://www.vancouversun.com/news/vigilant+about+illness+from+tainted+commercial+shellfish/8608330/story.html

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Highly Controversial Decision Against Point Reyes Oyster Farm- Marin Independent Journal

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Al Bergstein

We here on the Olympic Peninsula and Salish Sea, aren’t the only ones dealing with the controversy over aquaculture farming. The shellfish industry is up in arms, even up here, over the ruling by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, to end the lease with Drake Bay Oyster Co. on Point Reyes. This action, if left to stand, will end with the removal of the farm, the loss of 30 jobs, and the closing of one of the last oyster farms left in California.

The controversy exists over the reading of the lease, which apparently offered the shellfish farm with the ability to renew the lease, but the Parks department is saying that is not the case.

With powerful political allies like Senator Diane Feinstein siding with the oyster company, and the shellfish industry that is planning to sue to overturn the decision, I don’t think we have heard the end of this issue.

The bizarre part of this, is that the decision allows continued ranching and farming within the park, which one could argue would be vastly more destructive to the land than a small oyster farm operation. Also, given that the decision came just after the election, that this was in the works for months, with the election holding back the decision.

It is hard to understand the science behind this decision. These decisions often are not based in sound science, as witnessed by the NOAA decision last year to push whale watch boats even farther away from the Orcas in the San Juans. Having read the science behind the decision, I have to feel that there was more politics at play than reasonable science based decision making.

In the notion of “following the money”, it would be interesting to know who owns the ranches that were granted the free ride, and whether those people donated to any major political campaigns or not.

http://www.marinij.com/basketball/ci_22090541/drakes-bay-oyster-company-will-have-leave

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Taylor Shellfish Denied Mussel Farm Expansion in Thurston County

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Al Bergstein

Thurston County Commissioners have denied Taylor Shellfish’s mussel farm permit because cumulative impacts were not adequately considered. This doesn’t seem to mean that Taylor cannot come back with more data. The refusal had to do with not presenting what the Hearing Examiner, a lawyer by trade, felt was compelling cumulative impacts of the proposed farm.

The legal precedent behind this decision appears to have been from a variety of already resolved lawsuits, including one by the coalition of a group of six citizen organizations that have been fighting the expansion of shellfish farms, mainly in the South Sound.

Again, it’s interesting to note that the Puget Sound Partnership did not weigh in at all on this case, for either side.

Read the short PDF of the ruling here. There is a longer document of the actual findings from the Hearings Examiner available on line if you wish.

http://www.co.thurston.wa.us/permitting/hearing/decisions/2012/961372.bocc.decision.taylor.pdf

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Hood Canal Shellfish Closed Due To Vibrio – State of WA

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Al Bergstein

If you have purchased or dug shellfish on Hood Canal in the last few days, you might want to consider this news.

Hood Canal 5 growing area is closed effective immediately because of a Vibrio parahaemolyticus-associated illness outbreak involving six unrelated people. According to the Model Ordinance Chapter II, when a
growing area is closed for naturally-occurring pathogens, a recall must be initiated; the recall will apply to all oyster product harvested on and after August 16, 2012. All growers in Hood Canal 5 will be
contacted telephonically with details. The growing area may be reopened when it is determined that the naturally-occurring pathogen is no longer a risk to public health. If you have any questions, please contact Richard G. Lillie, MPH State Standardization Officer at 360.236.3313 or via email, or Cari Franz-West at 360.236.3326. Questions about the recall may be addressed to Frank Cox at
360.236.3309.

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State Closes More Strait Beaches to Shellfish

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Al Bergstein

While I cannot find confirmation of this on either DNR ro WFW web sites, the PDN is reporting that a mussel sample taken from Ediz Hook earlier this week has led to the closure for shellfish harvesting of additional beaches on the Strait of Juan de Fuca because of elevated levels of the potentially deadly paralytic shellfish poisoning, or PSP. Strait beaches from Dungeness Spit west to Cape Flattery now are closed to recreational harvesting of all species of shellfish.

 More Strait beaches closed to harvesting http://peninsuladailynews.com/article/20120629/news/306299994/more-strait-beaches-closed-to-harvesting

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Penn Cove company shifts shellfish harvesting operation to Quilcene Bay–Port Townsend Leader

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Al Bergstein

Luckily for Penn Cove Shellfish, they have a backup location. Hope that the State starts taking derelict vessels more seriously after this.

Until it gets the “all clear” notice that Penn Cove waters are clean, Penn Cove Shellfish has relocated its mussel-harvesting operation to its Quilcene Bay farm on Hood Canal.

Read the whole article at the PTleader online

http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?FromHome=1&TypeID=1&ArticleID=31481&SectionID=36&SubSectionID=55

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Combating Snails To Save Oysters – OPB.org

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Al Bergstein

Imagine you’re an oyster laying snugly in your bed in Willapa Bay, filtering in nutrients while growing to two and a half inches in diameter. And then you feel a weight on your quarter-inch thick shell and a short time later you begin to hear a grinding sound. Slowly, inexorably over the next few hours the drilling continues as the radula (a sandpaper-like tongue) of an Atlantic or Asian oyster drill snail takes away debris that its secretions of hydrochloric acid has created on your shell. When the snail inevitably pokes through your shell, its proboscis makes you its next meal.

http://news.opb.org/article/combating_snails_to_save_oysters/

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Sequim Bay shellfish harvest shut down. Recall in process.

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Al Bergstein

Ugly new toxin showing up in Sequim Bay. First time found in U.S. waters. Bad business.

OLYMPIA, WASH. High levels of a foreign biotoxin has been discovered in some Washington state shellfish.

The Washington State Department of Health said Thursday that this is the first time that unacceptable levels of the toxin has been found in U.S. food. It’s typically found in European counties and was recently found in British Columbia waters.

Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/08/11/2138544/high-levels-of-biotoxin-found.html#ixzz1UrJJLGdq

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Geoduck Article–Kitsap Sun

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Al Bergstein

“Economic benefits, ecological questions stall geoduck industry’s growth ; Geoduck farming, a unique industry in the region, has been slowed by legal and scientific challenges”

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/jul/23/economic-benefits-ecological-questions-stall/

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Washington poised to get tougher with shellfish operators

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Al Bergstein

3/1 KPLU-FM
By Austin Jenkins and KPLU News Staff

Last summer, we brought you a story about gaps in the system that’s supposed to keep Washington shellfish safe to eat. Now state lawmakers appear ready to get tougher with shellfish operators who violate food safety laws.

Early last year, Washington Fish and Wildlife cops shut down a Hood Canal shellfish harvesting operation. They allege G&R Seafood poached $500,ooo worth of oysters and clams from state and private beaches.

But Fish and Wildlife police say even after the business was raided, the company’s owner – who denies any wrongdoing – was spotted selling shellfish at fairs and other public gatherings. But Chief Deputy Mike Cenci says there was nothing his officers could do since it was G&R’s harvesting license <http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/>  that had been yanked:

More at
http://www.kplu.org/post/washington-poised-get-tougher-shellfish-operators

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Elwha River Weir – WDFW

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Al Bergstein

11/10 WDFW Fish Files
An adult fish trap, termed a resistance board weir, was installed in the Elwha River in September 2010 to begin counting adult salmon, trout, and char migrating upstream and downstream in the Elwha River. The weir is part of a multi-agency effort, which includes the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Olympic National Park, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), to monitor the influence of removing two Elwha River hydroelectric dams on salmon and steelhead returns to the Elwha River ecosystem.

More at
http://the-fish-files.blogspot.com/2010/11/elwha-river-weir.html

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Superb video on local ocean acidification

Posted on October 30, 2010 by Al Bergstein

Check out this 9 minute video from Oregon Public Broadcasting on the effects of ocean acidification on shellfish and animals at Tatoosh and the Oregon coast. A very good narrative of what’s happening to us right in our backyard of Tatoosh, and Hood Canal for that matter.

http://ecotrope.opb.org/2010/10/video-what-makes-oyster-larvae-unhappy/

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What’s happening locally with the environment? Jefferson MRC

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Al Bergstein

Jefferson County Marine Resource Committee will be meeting on Nov. 2nd at 6 to 8 PM at the Maritime Center meeting room. If you are interested in better understanding what is happening on the local front of the Marine environment, and/or you want to get more active in environmental issues around the shoreline, come by to hear a few of the issues. The public is welcome.

At 6:10 Ruth Blyther of the Nature Conservancy will talk about Biological Diversity. Also, committee reports on Marine Stewardship, Olympia Oysters, Eelgrass Protection, Drift Cell Restoration, Mystery Bay Harbor Restoration, and Maynard Beach issues will be discussed.

 

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State Health Department Closes Oyster Harvest on Hood Canal

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Al Bergstein

9/10 Kitsap Sun
By Kitsap Sun staff

BREMERTON —
The Washington state Department of Health has issued an oyster harvest closure for Hood Canal in Kitsap County after illnesses were reported in connection with commercially harvested oysters from the canal. The closure extends from the Hood Canal bridge to the Kitsap-Mason county line.

The illness, vibriosis, is caused by eating raw oysters contaminated with a natural bacterium called Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Symptoms of vibriosis include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, headache, fever and chills. They usually appear about 12 hours after eating infected shellfish but can manifest as quickly as two hours or as slowly as two days after consumption.

More at
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/sep/10/state-health-department-closes-oyster-harvest-on/

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State to take new look at how much fish is safe to eat.

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Al Bergstein

ed- It is somewhat upsetting to read that the tribes found out (through a grant paid for by the taxpayers of the state), that levels of toxins were far higher than thought, or safe, and yet we have had no warning and apparently you could assume they were selling this to restaurants and grocery stores. So the question is, “is it safe to eat crab and flounder caught in Puget Sound?”  The answer appears, at least from reading this article, to be ‘no’.  The good news here is that this approach turns pollution control on it’s head. Instead of allowing pollution and reducing consumption, we now are saying that we are going to allow consumption and reduce pollution to achieve healthy goals.

The problem I see is that how do I know that I’m getting safe fish, if the levels have changed but the pollution is still out there in the fish? That seems oddly backwards. Like pretending that the current safe levels aren’t a factor. I think I need better reporting to assure me that I’m just reading this wrong.

 

7/25 Seattle Times
State takes new look at how much fish is safe to eat
By Cassandra Brooks
Seattle Times staff reporter
From the shores of Lake Washington to the Duwamish River and other state waters, signs alert locals about toxic fish:
Warning: Fish from these waters contain high levels of mercury.

Caution: Trout contain high levels of DDT.

Advisory: Shellfish contain high PCBs, do not eat!

Under state law, Washington’s lakes, streams, estuaries and nearshore coastal waters only need to be clean enough for residents to safely consume one serving of fish a month.
Yet, for many state residents, local fish and shellfish are a much bigger part of their diet than that, whether it’s bass caught from the dock of a lake, a dozen oysters served up at a waterfront restaurant or salmon grilled on a backyard barbecue.
And for many tribes across Washington, fish are not just central to their diet but a core part of their cultural and spiritual lives as well.
More at
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012448836_tribalfish26m.html

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South Sound Commercial Shellfish Improving

Posted on April 14, 2010 by Al Bergstein

This is good news. Things are improving for South Sound growers, which is a step in the right direction

4/14 Olympian
Commercial shellfish beaches improve
JOHN DODGE; Staff writer

South Sound commercial shellfish beaches are conspicuous in their absence from the state Department of Health’s 2010 list of polluted beaches threatened with harvest closures.
It marks the first time since the state agency started its annual early warning notices in 1997 that one or more growing areas in Mason and Thurston counties haven’t been on the list, state Health Department shellfish specialist Bob Woolrich said.
The list of 10 areas threatened with harvest restrictions is down from 16 last year and is the least number of areas with deteriorating marine water quality in the past 13 years.

“We’ve seen improvement in water quality in many shellfish growing  areas over the past year,” Woolrich said.

More at
http://www.theolympian.com/2010/04/14/v-print/1205454/shellfish-beaches-improve.html

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Nanoparticles found in oyster livers

Posted on November 19, 2009 by Al Bergstein

For the first time, research shows that nanoparticles called fullerenes are filtered out of water by oysters and taken up by their liver cells. The particles accumulated in special cell compartments and affected the cells’ ability to regenerate and process nutrients. Adult oysters, embryos and liver cells that were exposed to moderate levels of the carbon-based nanoparticles were all sensitive to the fullerenes, possibly more than other aquatic animals tested to date.

Editor- The debate on the safety of nanoparticles, generated by the nascent nanotechnology industry, is of great concern to many scientists. As this technology expands, it’s effects on human and animal life is unknown, other than a few studies like this. The next step is to get the shellfish industry to test their products for possible exposure to these particles, and if necessary, call for an outright ban on them around the Sound.

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/oysters-sensitive-to-fullerene-nanoparticles/

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Shellfish ruling surprises farmers – AP

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Al Bergstein

8/22  -PHUONG LE; The Associated Press  —A landmark deal struck between Puget Sound Indian tribes and commercial growers two years ago was meant to end years of rancor over shellfish harvesting rights.
But some growers were surprised to learn this summer that some of their tidelands might not qualify under the settlement, potentially opening them up to tribal harvest.
In 2007, 17 Puget Sound tribes agreed to give up treaty rights to harvest shellfish from commercial shellfish beds, as long as the beds had been actively farmed before Aug. 28, 1995. In return, the tribe got $33 million in state and federal money to buy and lease tidelands for their own use. Commercial growers submitted documents insisting 864 parcels should be exempt from the settlements, but in papers filed with a federal court in Seattle in June, the tribes objected to half of those.

More at
http://www.theolympian.com/environment/story/947282.html

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More Mystery Bay news..

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Al Bergstein

The PDN continues it’s coverage of the Mystery Bay shellfish controversy. While I appreciate the tribes stance, and also tend to agree that there are probably too many boats and buoys in there, I haven’t read of any science to say that the boats are actually the problem. Likely the source of the problem will be shown to be something else, like failing septic systems, warming waters, changing water chemistry,etc. Most boaters don’t dump overboard, especially while tied up. Also, the type of folks tying up out there, which tend to be ‘old timers’ in the area, usually know better.

6/16 Peninsula Daily News -Inner Mystery Bay to stay open to commercial shellfishing, state official says-By Jeff Chew
Peninsula Daily News

NORDLAND — A state Department of Health official assured his audience that the inner waters of Mystery Bay would remain open to commercial shellfish harvests, but the outer bay would likely be closed later this summer.

“Our plan is to have no classification of the inner bay,” said Bob Woolrich, growing area program manager for the office of shellfish and water protection.

Woolrich made the remarks to about 100 people Monday night in a meeting that brought together state, county and tribal agencies.

The state has been considering reclassifying the Mystery Bay commercial shellfish growing area as prohibited or conditional, which could have led to closure of the inner bay.

There’s more to the story at
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20090616/news/306169995

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Oysters in Trouble – Seattle Times

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Al Bergstein

6/14 Seattle Times- Oysters in deep trouble: Is Pacific Ocean’s chemistry killing sea life?
By Craig Welch —Seattle Times environment reporter–WILLAPA BAY, Pacific County —

The collapse began rather unspectacularly.

In 2005, when most of the millions of Pacific oysters in this tree-lined estuary failed to reproduce, Washington’s shellfish growers largely shrugged it off.

In a region that provides one-sixth of the nation’s oysters — the epicenter of the West Coast’s $111 million oyster industry — everyone knows nature can be fickle.

But then the failure was repeated in 2006, 2007 and 2008. It spread to an Oregon hatchery that supplies baby oysters to shellfish nurseries from Puget Sound to Los Angeles. Eighty percent of that hatchery’s oyster larvae died, too.

Now, as the oyster industry heads into the fifth summer of its most unnerving crisis in decades, scientists are pondering a disturbing theory. They suspect water that rises from deep in the Pacific Ocean — icy seawater that surges into Willapa Bay and gets pumped into seaside hatcheries — may be corrosive enough to kill baby oysters.

More at
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009336458_oysters14m.html

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