PORT ANGELES — Every beach around the North Olympic Peninsula has been closed to harvesting at least some sort of shellfish.
The Washington Department of Health on Tuesday closed Sequim Bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Dungeness Spit westward to Cape Flattery and the Pacific coast from Cape Flattery south into Grays Harbor County to all species.
Discovery Bay in Jefferson County was closed only for butter clams. Hood Canal remained closed for oysters. Kitsap County beaches were closed to all species. All areas are closed for scallops.
The ocean beach closures were annual May-October measures, but the Strait and bays closures were triggered after samples showed high levels of the toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning, or PSP.
Butter clams can retain the toxin for a year or more and may remain unsafe after other species are safe.
Shrimp are exempt from the closures, as are crabs.
While crab meat is safe, guts can contain the toxin. Crab harvesters should clean crabs thoroughly and discard the guts, also called butter.
Closure for all species includes oysters, mussels and other shellfish such as moon snails.
Red tide
PSP — sometimes called “red tide” — occurs when poison-producing plankton “bloom.”
Shellfish filter the plankton from the water and concentrate the toxin.
Cooking does not prevent paralytic shellfish poisoning.
Early symptoms include tingling of the lips and tongue, followed by tingling or numbness in the fingers and toes, and then by loss of control of arms or legs.
If the muscles of the chest and abdomen become paralyzed, a victim cannot breathe.
Death can come as quickly as two hours after a person eats contaminated shellfish.
Vibriosis
While most of the unsafe species contain PSP, oysters contain a bacteria that causes vibriosis.
Symptoms start 12 to 24 hours after eating raw oysters and include moderate to severe watery diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and sometimes nausea and vomiting, fever, chills and headache.
Water in which contaminated oysters are found can infect other shellfish or fin fish. Thorough cooking destroys the bacteria.
For more facts
For more information about shellfish closures:
* Call the Marine Biotoxin Hotline at 1-800-562-5632.
* Visit www.doh.wa.gov, go to “Beach Closures” on the right side of the page and click on “Shellfish.”
* For regulatory closures by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, visit www.wdfw.wa.gov, click on “Sport Fishing Regulations & Rule Changes” near the bottom of the page, and click on “What Emergency Rules are in effect for Shellfish?” near the middle of the page.
