Wondering.....

[Lady Cop]

last year I paid 30.00 dollars for a claming license and went once! The rest of the year was "red tide" it kinda pissed me off. There are people that use a backhoe to did a clambake pit. They are some serious seafood junkies. And are usually dotted all along the Maine coast for 10.00 all you can eat.

bad news Maggot~~~:.|


'Significant' red tide bloom possible in 2010

February 24, 2010
Researchers announced today the potential for a "significant" red tide bloom this spring and summer.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution biologist Don Anderson led the Gulf of Maine Toxicity project that surveyed the ocean floor in the Gulf of Maine, looking for hardened cysts deposited by algae last fall that seed the new blooms.


The surveys found the abundance of cysts in these areas to be 60 percent higher than what they had seen in 2005's historic red tide bloom that shut down shellfishing in most of New England, including the Cape and Islands. These cyst fields have also expanded to the south, which could meant that the 2010 bloom would hit Massachusetts Bay and Georges Bank sooner than in other years.

In the fall, when food runs low, or conditions change, the single-celled Alexandrium algae that are behind the red tide, form armored cysts that sink to the ocean bottom. An internal clock “wakes up” the cysts, usually the next spring, and a new bloom starts. The largest cyst fields are off mid-coast Maine.

Depending on weather conditions and the amount of food in the water, the algae can multiply rapidly, doubling their population in 24 hours. With favorable winds, cells hitch a ride on southerly coastal currents that spread them into Massachusetts waters later in the spring or early summer.

Toxins produced by the algae accumulate in shellfish as they filter feed on the tiny organisms. If a human, or other warm-blooded animal, eats a sufficient amount of these contaminated clams, mussels, quahogs, whelks or snails, they can suffer paralytic shellfish poisoning that affects the respiratory system and can be fatal.

Once the bloom has faded, shellfish are able to metabolize the poison and are generally safe to eat within a week, for most species.

The 2005 bloom shut down shellfishing from Maine to Martha's Vineyard with $20 million in losses to the Massachusetts shellfish industry. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration funded the Gulf of Maine toxicity study.