May 30, 2024 — An outbreak of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) has sickened at least 20 people in the U.S. state of Oregon, according to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA).
The people who have reported as sick were recreationally harvesting mussels on 25 May or 26 May at either Short Beach near Oceanside, at Hug Point, or at Seaside in Clatsop County. Some have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported.
August 22, 2016 — Researchers are developing a field test kit that would make it easier to monitor for paralytic shellfish poisoning.
Project partners include NOAA researchers from the Lower 48 as well as community testers based on Kodiak Island and in the Alaska Peninsula.
Despite the high level of toxicity found in shellfish in the Kodiak Archipelago, people still harvest them.
Julie Matweyou, who works in the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program and has been a long-term researcher of PSP, said a person becomes sick when they eat shellfish that have consumed toxic plankton.
She explains paralytic shellfish poisoning is exactly what it sounds like.
“The PSP toxins can cause tingling of the mouth, paralysis, tingling of the extremities, nausea, headache, people describe a floating sensation,” she said. “And in a severe toxin event, the person would experience paralysis of the limbs, which would progress into paralysis of your diagram, which would cause respiratory paralysis.”
A faster, cheaper way to monitor for PSP could prevent sickness in harvesters and even save lives. The testing also would be helpful in collecting more data about when toxicity peaks and when it declines.