Saving Seafood

Toxin Taints Crabs and Kills Sea Mammals, Scientists Warn

November 4, 2015 — The authorities in California are advising people to avoid consumption of crabs contaminated by a natural toxin that has spread throughout the marine ecosystem off the West Coast, killing sea mammals and poisoning various other species.

Kathi A. Lefebvre, the lead research biologist at the Wildlife Algal Toxin Research and Response Network, said on Wednesday that her organization had examined about 250 animals stranded on the West Coast and had found domoic acid, a toxic chemical produced by a species of algae, in 36 animals of several species.

“We’re seeing much higher contamination in the marine food web this year in this huge geographic expanse than in the past,” Ms. Lefebvre said.

She said that the toxin had never before been found in animals stranded in Washington or Oregon, and that there were most likely greater numbers of contaminated marine mammals not being found by humans.

The California Department of Public Health recently advised people to avoid consumption of certain species of crabs because of potential toxicity. Razor clam fisheries in Washington have been closed throughout the summer for the same reason.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the California department said that “recent test results” indicated dangerous levels of domoic acid in Dungeness and rock crabs caught in California waters between Oregon and Santa Barbara, Calif.

Read the full story at The New York Times

NOAA Earmarks $88,000 in Funding to Study Massive West Coast Algal Bloom that Shut Dungeness Fishery

July 23, 2015 — SEATTLE (AP) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is committing $88,000 to help Washington analyze a massive bloom of toxic algae off the coast that have closed some shellfish harvests.

The algae blooms have occurred along the West Coast from southern California to Alaska since May. Dangerous toxin levels prompted the closure of Dungeness crab fishing off the southern coast of Washington. Ocean beaches were also closed to recreational razor clamming.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Seattle Times

 

West Coast drought affecting trout and salmon

July 9, 2015 — (AP) — Drought and record hot weather are producing lethal conditions for salmon and trout in rivers across the West.

A recent survey released Wednesday of the lower reaches of 54 rivers in Oregon, California and Washington by the conservation group Wild Fish Conservancy showed nearly three-quarters had temperatures higher than 70 degrees, considered potentially deadly for salmon and trout.

Low river flows from the record low winter snowpack, which normally feeds rivers through the summer, combined with record hot weather have created a perfect storm of bad conditions for salmon and trout, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supervisory fisheries biologist Rich Johnson.

Oregon Climate Center Associate Director Kathie Dello said the entire West Coast saw record low snowpack last winter, leading to low rivers this summer. All three states had record high temperatures for June, with Oregon breaking the record by 3 degrees, and the three-month outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is for continued warmer and drier-than-normal weather made worse by the ocean-warming condition known as El Niño, she added.

Read the full story from Al Jazeera with The Associated Press