Saving Seafood

Mussels test positive for opioids in Seattle’s Puget Sound

May 29, 2018 — Scientists at the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife have found that mussels in Seattle’s waters are testing positive for opioids.

The finding suggests “a lot of people” are taking oxycodone in the Puget Sound, researchers say.

Scientists used mussels as a way to test pollution in Seattle’s waters and discovered high enough oxycodone levels for the shellfish to test positive.

Mussels do not metabolise opioids, but some fish can become addicted.

Mussels are filter-feeders, which means they filter water for nutrients to nourish themselves. In the process, they end up storing pollutants in their tissues, which makes them a prime indicator species.

State researchers distributed clean mussels around the Puget Sound and extracted them months later to test the waters.

Of the 18 locations scientists used, three showed traces of oxycodone. The drug traces were not enough to get any humans high from consumption, but enough to indicate a problem, officials said.

“What we eat and what we excrete goes into the Puget Sound,” Jennifer Lanksbury, a biologist at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, told CBS News affiliate KIRO.

“It’s telling me there’s a lot of people taking oxycodone in the Puget Sound area.”

Read the full story at BBC News

 

Overdose suspected in fisherman’s death

July 6, 2017 — The death of a 26-year-old Maine fisherman, found aboard a vessel moored at the Jodrey State Fish Pier over the holiday weekend, is being categorized by the Essex District Attorney’s office as a suspected drug overdose.

Neither the state medical examiner’s office nor law enforcement authorities would confirm the identity of the man who was found aboard the FV/Titan at the fish pier off Parker Street early Saturday morning. A positive identification and definitive cause of death were, as of Wednesday, pending findings by state medical examiner’s office, said Carrie Kimball Monahan, spokeswoman for the office of Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett.

Massachusetts state police from the DA’s office, following a call from Gloucester police, responded to a report of an unattended death. The troopers and Gloucester police found drug paraphernalia at the scene, indicating a likely overdose, Kimball Monahan said. There were no signs of foul play, and the DA’s office is not actively investigating, she said.

“If there is a presence of drug paraphernalia on or in the vicinity of the deceased, we will categorize that as a suspected drug overdose,” Kimball Monahan said. The DA’s office tracks overdose deaths each year for Essex County.

John McCarthy, Gloucester’s interim police chief, said Wednesday that police and the Fire Department’s rescue squad had responded to a call from an “unknown party” around 5:30 a.m. Saturday reporting an apparent drug overdose on the fishing boat Titan.

He said police and Fire Department paramedics found the 26-year-old man on the boat, and administered nasal naloxone, a drug that temporarily reverses the effects of an opioid overdose often known by its trade name, Narcan. 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times