California Consumers Warned To Avoid Eating Rock Crabs, Bivalve Shellfish

[yuiyoshida]

The California Department of Public Health has issued a warning to consumers to avoid eating rock crabs from Half Moon Bay and bivalve shellfish and rock crabs from Monterey Bay.

Officials with the California Department of Public Health issued a warning on Friday to consumers to avoid eating rock crabs from Half Moon Bay and bivalve shellfish and rock crabs from Monterey Bay.

Dangerous levels of a toxin called domoic acid have been found in rock crabs and bivalve shellfish such as oysters, clams, mussels and scallops.

The warning is in effect for state waters south of 37 degrees 11 minutes north latitude to 36 degrees 35 minutes north latitude, according to health officials.

That's an area roughly between Pigeon Point and Cypress Point in Monterey County.

The advisory covers rock crab caught recreationally or commercially and recreationally caught mussels, clams and the internal organs, or viscera, of scallops, health officials said.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/Consumers-Warned-To-Avoid-Eating-Rock-Crabs-9175682.php

(damn it!! stop polluting our Beaches and Oceans!)

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. From algal blooms. Symptoms include nausea, confusion, seizures, and Hitchcock films

Domoic acid, a naturally occurring toxin produced by certain types of algae, can be harmful or even fatal to humans if contaminated shellfish is consumed. The toxin was detected initially on the west coast in 1991.
...
Domoic acid can be fatal to people if consumed in high doses. There is no antidote for domoic acid, which causes a condition called amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP). Symptoms include vomiting, nausea, diarrhea and abdominal cramps within 24 hours of ingestion. In severe cases, neurological symptoms develop within 48 hours and include headache, dizziness, confusion, loss of short-term memory, motor weakness, seizures, profuse respiratory secretions, cardiac arrhythmia and coma.
...
WDFW is actively participating in the Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom (ORHAB) project. See also the WDFW ORHAB web page. This monitoring project provides the data necessary to develop an “early warning” system to execute safe and efficient shellfish harvest seasons. This may help avoid massive disruptions caused by last-minute fishery closures, while still protecting the health of thousands of consumers.
...
One morning in the summer of 1961, hundreds of crazed birds attacked the seaside town of Capitola, California. The birds "cried like babies" as they dove into street lamps, crashed through glass windows, and attacked people on the ground. Most of the birds were sooty shearwaters, a normally non-aggressive species that feeds on small fish and comes ashore only to breed. This incident fascinated Alfred Hitchcock, who frequently vacationed in nearby Santa Cruz. He included newspaper clippings about the Capitola attack in his studio proposal for THE BIRDS, which appeared in cinemas two years later. The agent responsible for the attack is now widely thought to have been domoic acid.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/razorclams/domoic_acid.html