By Richard Gaines and Dan Atkinson
Staff writers
May 16, 2008 03:54 am Less than a week after shellfish harvesting was banned in Southern New Hampshire because of red tide, the algae poisonous to humans forced a shutdown of Essex County's $30 million shellfish harvesting industry yesterday. After tests from Newburyport to Gloucester showed the presence of dangerous concentrations of the Alexandrium fundyense algae in bivalves, the state Division of Marine Fisheries ordered a halt to shellfishing yesterday at 12:30 p.m. "We basically cannot go on the clam flats," said Rowley clammer John Grundstrom. "But you have to give credit to the state. They're doing it for safety. If someone does get sick, we're really in trouble." Red tide is an algae that, while harmless to the shellfish that ingest it, can poison humans who ingest the shellfish. The state Division of Marine Fisheries shut down clamming after taking samples of mussels in Ipswich and getting a high algae count, Grundstrom said. The ban on harvesting covers all filter-feeding bivalves. Lobsters, crabs and scallops are not affected by red tide. But for those looking forward to steamers or fried clams this summer, clams from Canada and elsewhere will have to do. The closure was expected. Starting in Maine, closures have been moving southward for the past three weeks as an enormous bloom of red tide algae, stimulated by the ample sunshine, has been pushed shoreward by persistent easterly winds. "It's a bad package," said Don Anderson, a red tide expert at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, whose research team last fall identified an enormous spread of red tide algae seeds on the ocean bottom. Marine Fisheries will have to get clean samples over a three-week period before they can reopen the flats and Plum Island Sound, Grundstrom said. Woods Hole's Gulf of Maine Toxicity Study warned that this season's seeds, under ideal conditions, could develop into a bloom that could cause more harm than the epic red tide outbreak of 2005. That bloom kept the entire coast of the Gulf of Maine closed to shellfishing for two months, costing the local economy an estimated $50 million. Grundstrom said at least 300 clammers will be affected while the ban is in place. Essex County's commercial shellfishermen earned $6 million for the clams and other shellfish they dug and brought to brokers last year, according to Marine Fisheries. The economic impact multiplies four to five times as the shellfish make their way from buyers to shuckers to truckers and finally to the area's takeout windows, restaurants and fish markets. "It is the most locally contained industry," Gloucester Shellfish Constable David Sargent said. "All the money stays local." Woodman's of Essex, where clams were first fried early in the last century, will buy from Canada, beyond the northernmost reach of the red tide, to satisfy demand for fried clams, which can reach 180 gallons a week during the summer, said co-owner Steve Woodman. Local clammers have no recourse but to wait out the red tide. Grundstrom is mowing lawns and working other odd jobs now to earn money while the flats are closed. "I learned the last few years that you're not going to make a living (clamming) anymore," Grundstrom said. "You definitely have to use it as a second income, or you're not going to make it."
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