Disclaimer: These postings were sent to us from a variety of media sources over the Internet. The content has not been reviewed for scientific accuracy or edited in any manner.

No effect on area oysters seen from Cape Cod red tide

Connecticut Post

April 21, 2000

By THANE GRAUEL
Thane.Grauel@Thomnews.com

A red tide on Cape Cod is not likely to affect Long Island Sound or its valuable oyster industry, marine biologists said Thursday.

The algal bloom at a salt pond at Orleans and Eastham, Mass., on the Atlantic side of the Cape just above its elbow, has closed shellfishing there but should not spread far.

"Its pretty local up here," said Michael Hickey, chief biologist for the shellfish program of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

Red tides, he said, generally hit the Cape and north through the Gulf of Maine.

"The algae is something found in normally colder waters," he said.

"The further south the less likely you are to see it, or it's not in large concentrations and is less toxic."

The red tide, a massive bloom of the algae Alexandrium, hit the Nauset estuarine system unusually early, but Hickey has "no clue" as to why.

At high enough levels, a red tide's toxin can be harmful to humans. But the levels found in shellfish this week were enough to close the fishery, but not to recall shellfish already harvested.

The last time a sizable red tide appeared in Connecticut waters was 1985, when algae bloomed out of control at the mouth of the Pawcatuck River, the border with Rhode Island.

Bruce Keafer, a research associate at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass., said Thursday that smaller blooms do occur in coastal areas of the Sound, but the Cape's occurrence is no threat.

"If a bloom happened in Connecticut it would be an independent event," Keafer said. "The bloom in the Nauset system will not spread to Connecticut."

Keafer does not know why the bloom came a few weeks early, but said it probably has to do with nutrients, temperature and light, which control the single-celled organism's growth.

Connecticut's oyster industry is the second largest in the nation after Louisiana, but is the most profitable.

Thane Grauel, who covers regional issues, can be reached at 330-6226.