|
Shellfish In The Red
by Jeff Della Penna
Small amounts of microscopic phytoplankton are always floating in the ocean. Trace levels draw little attention. When the saturation point or concentration reaches critical mass, they become toxic. As this concentration comes ashore, like most of the specks of food and dust floating in the water column, they are ingested by bivalve shellfish, with the algae’s neurotoxins concentrating in shellfish meat, turning clams and other bivalves from succulent summer money-makers into biological time-bombs which under the right conditions can cause humans to experience numbness, respiratory problems - even death. As this red tide drags into July, many who rely on seasonal income from steamers and the like are calling this a natural disaster. Red tides come and go, but Maine clam diggers find a way to deliver, moving up or down the coast to avoid closures. Soft-shell clams according to Department of Marine Resources (DMR) 2003 landings data, are the third most valuable commercial species in Maine, with a value of $15,859,229.00 This year clamming will surely lose third place because something terribly wrong has happened on the clam flats. This year, a red tide has come like none anyone can remember. This red tide is not confined to rural backwaters. It has spread from the waters of Maine like a coffee stain on a bank note. On the last storm of May, a red tide was washed ashore that will break all records for the last 33 years, forcing the closures of New England’s most valuable clam flats from Passamaquoddy Bay at the Canadian boarder, all the way down the coast through Massachusetts. Scientists can only guess why Maine has had historically high levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning , especially during the warmer periods of the year. Usually, Maine’s red tide arrives in mid-August, after the height (and most profitable part) of the clamming season and just in time to push clam diggers back on dry land and into the blueberry barrens, where they’re needed for the annual harvest. In the last decade, red tides have arrived with such regularity, right at blueberry season that many Down East clammers complained it was a hoax, a conspiracy perpetuated by the DMR in cahoots with the blueberry industry. These diggers, who earn their living through the low tides, plucking soft-shells out of the muck one at a time, found it upsetting to be closed off the flats because of a red tide, only to see their Canadian neighbors still digging on the other side of the same bay.
This tide is no hoax and aside from some tourists looking for birds, the clam flats of Maine are eerily empty - over 90% of all clam flats are closed for the duration of the tide. Clam diggers who had struggled through the winter and had probably already spent (two or three times) the extra money they were going to make through the July clamming high season, were suddenly unable to provide for themselves or their families through their fishery. In struggling Down East counties like Washington, where living hand–to-mouth isn’t temporary, but a way of life, this red tide ended the careers of many struggling diggers. Travisse Stanley of Gouldsboro has been clamming for 36 years. He can remember one other time when the red tide was so destructive and came so early. “I guess it was about 25 years ago,” Stanley said. “It was really bad and somehow some diggers got enough attention so that the government was willing to pay out unemployment. I wasn’t eligible though, because I was in high school. But, I remember that some people were helped through that time and that it was bad.” Stanley says that this red tide is worse than that one years ago, and there aren’t as many full-time clammers anymore, to fight for aid. “Everyone that I know that clams is just in it part time. I’ve only been doing it part time. We’re all doing a bunch of jobs to make ends meet. We’ve all rolled over to something else, trying to wait out the tide. The bad thing is that they’re saying that it might last for another month, at least.” U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R) and other Maine politicians are trying to help save the season for the shellfish industry. “Those individuals and businesses that make their living from the shellfish industry are in grave danger of serious economic harm,” Snowe said in a prepared statement. “It does not affect lobsters, shrimp, crabs, or fish, however, and the shellfish currently being sold in restaurants and stores was harvested in beds that were or still are safe.” She announced June 23 that the Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued a disaster declaration for those counties in Maine that have suffered because of the recent red tide outbreak. The SBA contacted Snowe to inform her of its decision after reviewing a written request Snowe sent to SBA Administrator Hector Barretto . The declaration means Maine business owners in Penobscot, Oxford, Androscoggin, Somerset, Kennebec, Cumberland, Hancock, Knox, Sagadahoc, Waldo, Washington, York and Lincoln counties, who have suffered economic injuries from this disaster, can receive loans under the Federal Disaster Loan Program. But, what about the clam digger who’s been forced out of his or her livelihood? Senators Snowe and Susan Collins (R) and Representatives Tom Allen (D) and Michael Michaud (D) say they’re working on it. They sent a joint letter to Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, appealing for aid to Maine shellfish fishermen under Section 312(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and Section 308(b) of the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act. Assistance available through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for fisheries declared “commercial fisheries failures” includes grants to states that could be used for compensation for lost fishing time and lost equipment, “buy back” of vessels and equipment, job retraining and incentives for economic diversification.
“This year’s devastating red tide has left many in the shellfish industry unable to work, and every day it persists worsens their plight,” Senators Snowe and Collins and Representatives Allen and Michaud said in a joint statement. “We are pleased that the Commerce Department recognizes the urgency of the situation and have taken the first step toward providing desperately needed relief.” When will it come and if it can help the industry remains to be seen. Meaningful relief will cost tens of thousands of dollars, needed from North Lubec, ME to Wareham in Buzzards Bay, at the base of Cape Cod. What caused this and what have we learned? Dr. Don Anderson is a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist and senior scientist. Anderson is director of the Institution’s Coastal Ocean Institute and also heads the U.S. National Office for Marine Biotoxins and Harmful Algal Blooms. Since this tide hit he’s been working 24/7 and has become the man on the –hot seat, fielding questions from every level of government as well as the national and international press. In all of his years of studying red tides and other harmful algal blooms he has never seen anything like this on the western Atlantic. Anderson said in a normal year, the algae concentration in the waters of the Gulf of Maine might be 1,000 or 2,000 cells per liter. When this tide hit, the concentration jumped to 40 times as high.. By the tenth day of the tide, Anderson and his associates declared this outbreak the worst ever, confirming that more flats have been closed because of this red tide than even the red tide of 1972. The outbreak will most certainly cripple the region’s multimillion-dollar shellfish industry, which sells clams, scallops and oysters throughout the world. Anderson has called the extraordinary series of events leading to this red tide a sort of perfect storm, with everything in place for a record-smashing outbreak of Alexandrium Fundyense. He cites the snowy winter and prolonged rainy spring for flushing an unusually high amount of algae-promoting nutrients into the sea. He also suggests that there may be more “cysts” of Alexandrium in the western Gulf of Maine sediments than in the past as a result of a major red tide bloom last fall. Cysts can remain dormant in sediments until certain conditions create a germination and growth, leading to a bloom in subsequent years. Another possibility, according to Anderson, is that there is more fresh water entering the coast of the Gulf of Maine this year than in the last decade, reflecting the higher rainfall this spring and the heavy snowfall over the winter. Anderson says that this fresh water provides the hydrographic conditions that can lead to optimum growth of Alexandrium cells. Then unseasonably windy weather moved the concentration into place for currents to push it against the shore. Anderson and the others admit they don’t know for sure how long it will last, but expect it to linger for six to eight weeks total, longer in some areas. Long enough to wipe out July 4th sales and ruin the summer tourist market. Stanley can roll into the lobster fishery to get by. But for many fishermen, clamming is it. They’re at the bottom of the food chain and aside from digging for worms or gathering winkles, it was the cheapest and easiest way to get into a fishery and make a living. “Everybody is just doing what they can to keep going,” Stanley said. “Some are digging worms and others are doing odd jobs. What can you do? You gotta eat. You’ve got to pay your bills.” Whatever the cause, this time of the year clam diggers usually see their earnings for soft-shells go from $1 up to $2.10 per pound. That can turn a $150 tide into a $300 tide. The same hard work, twice the profit. This year clam diggers up and down the coast will have little to celebrate on Independence Day. |
