A toxin known as red tide that affects shellfish caused the state to ban all shellfishing in much of the North and South shores last week until further notice.
However, despite the ban, many local fishermen have so far been unaffected, because many local communities have not currently been allowing shellfishing anyway.
“Salem has no digging permits,” said Capt. Bill McHugh, the harbormaster for that city. “The only thing we have is sea worms, so there’s no impact on us because we have a moratorium on digging.”
The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries on July 15 announced that the harvest of soft-shell clams and razor clams was banned in certain shellfish-growing areas on the North Shore. Harvesting of all shellfish and carnivorous snails was banned in other areas, but that ban mostly affected the South Shore.
Local communities included in the ban are Beverly, Boston, Danvers, Essex, Gloucester, Ipswich, Lynn, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Marblehead, Nahant, Newbury, Newburyport, Peabody, Revere, Rockport, Rowley, Salem, Saugus, Swampscott and Winthrop.
In Marblehead, seasonal permits for recreational clam harvesting run from Oct. 1 through the end of April, said Shellfish Constable Jack Attridge, so they have also been unaffected. In Revere, where digging for clams and other shellfish is more common, it was already temporarily banned because of the weather.
“Whenever we get a lot of rain, we shut down shellfishing,” said Revere Harbormaster John Hurley.
Red tide, or paralytic shellfish poison, is a neurotoxin that contaminates shellfish and causes serious illness in humans when ingested. It is caused by microscopic algae which, when they bloom, can tint the waters red. The algae are eaten by the shellfish, and do not affect the animals themselves.
While swimming and other beach activities are perfectly safe during a red tide algae bloom, eating shellfish contaminated by the toxin is very dangerous. Cooking the shellfish does not make them safe to eat.
Shellfish affected by red tide include clams, mussels, oysters, scallops, whelks and snails. The toxin does not affect lobster or crabs.
In Swampscott, where much of the shellfish harvested are lobsters and crabs, this means that fishermen there have also been largely unaffected by the closures.
“It affects shellfish like clams and mussels, and there’s not a lot of harvesting on our beaches of that stuff,” said Capt. Bill Waters, the town’s harbormaster. “There hasn’t been much impact.”
