Red tide hits clam diggers hard

The closure of all of the southwest New Brunswick coastline and almost all of eastern Maine to the harvesting of shellfish has been hitting clam diggers hard this year. Extensive rains first caused flood closures, and now red-tide toxicity levels are very high along the coast.

Clam digger Julie Keene of Trescott says the closures are placing more pressure on the periwinkle resource. "There's people everywhere picking periwinkles. There's no other work," she says. "We're going to kill the periwinkles because we have to work. We have no other work whatsoever except for picking periwinkles."

"Even before we had red tide, we had a clam price that was what we got 30 years ago," Keene adds, referring to the 70 cents a pound that diggers were getting before the price increased.

Larry Matthews of Ocean Harvest Seafood in Edmunds buys from 50 to 60 diggers in the area around Cobscook Bay and agrees that it's hard for them to find any work. "They're in dire straights if you ask me," he comments. "If it's rough now, I can't imagine what this winter will be."

The price now being paid for clams by dealers is $90 a bushel, which he says is pretty good, but the clammers haven't been able to dig. "A lot of them depend on that money this time of year to pay bills ahead and things like that," says Matthews. "It's going to be rough."

In New Brunswick, the shellfish closures extend within 1.6 kilometres along the shore from the Nova Scotia border to the border with Maine and within 1.6 kilometres of the islands of Grand Manan, The Wolves, Bliss, Hills, Frye, Deer and Campobello.

As of July 8, the only area in Washington County that was open for shellfish harvesting was a small area in Harrington around the Narraguagus River. Little Kennebec Bay and Machias Bay were not under red-tide closures but were still under flood closures.

The flood closures along the coast began weeks ago because of heavy rains, which push more pollution into near-shore areas, according to Darcie Couture, director of the biotoxin monitoring program for the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR). Very few of the areas have yet cleared up.

The red tide is "even worst than last year, with the speed it came in and the scores we're seeing," Couture says, referring to the toxicity levels being measured by the DMR in shellfish. Along with the impact on the diggers, she worries about people possibly getting paralytic shellfish poisoning from eating contaminated shellfish if they don't pay attention to the closure notices. "It's very bad," she says of the toxicity levels, adding that people should not dig clams or harvest other shellfish for personal consumption unless they are sure an area is open for harvesting.

Couture adds that it is safe to eat shellfish purchased from certified seafood dealers, supermarkets and restaurants. She notes, though, that there are few places in the state where they can get clean shellfish. "As bad as it is, there are pockets that are clean, around Penobscot Bay and the small Harrington area. There is still clean Maine product."

Couture says the red tide is more widespread along the coast this year, with the Stonington area usually escaping from being hit by red tide. "There are low scores there, and that's not good news," as the toxicity levels still seem to be getting worse. "The worse it gets, the longer it takes to clear up," she points out. The DMR labs measure both the levels of phytoplankton that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning and the scores in shellfish. "They're in the thousands now" for the area from Cutler to the Canadian border, she says, adding that the quarantine level is 80.

Couture hopes that the flood closures won't last much longer, but for red tide the numbers have to plateau first, and that has not yet happened. She says the closures "may be for weeks or even to the end of the summer."

Paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) is a natural occurring toxin often referred to as red tide. This toxin or poison can cause a loss of muscular coordination, paralysis and in severe cases is life threatening.