Tag Archives: harvesting banned
Toxic algae bloom closes Downeast Maine shellfish industry
Last week, the Department of Marine Resources issued a recall of mussels, clams and quahogs caught in Downeast Maine after samples tested positive for domoic acid, a biotoxin that causes illness, memory loss, brain damage and possibly death in humans. At the same time, the state banned harvesting for mussels, clams, oysters and carnivorous snails on parts of a wide swath of coastline from Deer Isle to the Canadian border. “A closure for this toxin in Eastern Maine is unprecedented, that is not anything anyone has ever seen,” said Darcie Couture, a Brunswick marine scientist and former head of the state’s marine biotoxin program. “No one on this coast is that experienced with a domoic acid event,” Couture said. “I don’t think it is sinking in how serious this is.” Read the story here 23:07
