|
|
Photo Kaimi Lum
Nauset Marsh is beset by a red tide outbreak. Shellfishing curtailed. |
|
|
Red tide closes estuary to shellfishing
Banner Daily Update posted Thursday, April 26
By Emily Sussman
Banner Staff
EASTHAM — The entirety of Nauset Marsh was closed to shellfishing by the state’s Div. of Marine Fisheries last week due to a resurgence of red tide, an algal bloom that renders the meat of bivalves toxic to humans. As a result of the closure, about a half-dozen commercial fishermen in Eastham will be cut off from their livelihood until the shellfish filter out the algae, which is stored in the stomachs of mussels, clams, and oysters.
The contaminated area extends from Town Cove in Orleans north to Salt Pond in Eastham, but according to Henry Lind, the town’s shellfish constable and natural resources officer, red tide outbreaks in Nauset Marsh are nothing new. Because of preexisting algal cysts in the estuary – a closed system where regular flushing from the Atlantic is made difficult by virtue of a single narrow channel, located between Orleans’ barrier beach and Eastham’s Coast Guard Beach – an outbreak has occurred during four out of the last five years.
But even more troublesome than the frequency of the outbreaks, Lind said Tuesday, are the rising toxicity levels that gauge the concentration of the algae in shellfish populations. The state threshold for shellfishing closures is 80 micrograms per 100 grams of shellfish meat, but over the past few years, Nauset Marsh has been testing anywhere from 100 to 1,500 micrograms, he said. “It’s unavoidable that something is going on here,” he said.
Based on past years, Lind said, the Nauset Marsh closure will likely last about two months, but “that depends of a lot of factors,” including temperature and weather conditions. He added that “the patchiness of the [algae] is incredibly diverse” throughout the Nauset Marsh system, with the highest concentrations of cysts in Salt Pond in Eastham and in Robert’s Cove in Orleans.
In addition to the commercial shellfishermen who are prohibited from harvesting, Lind said, about 25 of Eastham’s recreational permit-holders are also expected to be sitting out this spring. Normal operations will continue at the town’s aquaculture propagation facility on Hemenway Landing, however, since the fledgling shellfish are kept in re-circulating seawater tanks indoors.
|
Nickerson wins
Brazen jewelry heist nets over $65,000
Clarification on Parmakian
Coast Guard chases down missing buoys
Baldwin photos in Truro show
Maria Flook wins Guggenheim prize
|
|
|
|
|
Apr 26th, 2007