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Red tide puts lock on bay shellfish

By DOUG FRASER STAFF WRITER BREWSTER -
Ted ''Chip'' Ellis cut a lonely figure on the broad expanse of tidal flats, putting 800 pounds of oysters back into wire cages on his two acre aquaculture grant off Ellis Landing.

A state ruling to close all of Cape Cod Bay to shellfishing because of toxic algae meant empty baskets for fishermen at Barnstable Harbor yesterday. (Staff photo by KEVIN MINGORA)

''That's $500,'' he said glumly. Ellis had already promised the oysters to a local restaurant, but had to return them to his grant yesterday morning after a Brewster shellfish constable told him all of Cape Cod Bay was closed to shellfishing because of red tide.

The announcement of the most extensive red tide closure ever on Cape Cod was not on the Division of Marine Fisheries Web site yesterday morning, and Ellis said state Environmental Police didn't even know about it when he called. DMF made the decision to close the bay late Thursday afternoon after the red tide algae Alexandrium cell counts reached unprecedented levels. In some places they were 10 to 20 times what had been seen since monitoring started in the 1980s.

As of last night, all of Cape Cod Bay including all water bodies connecting to it, the Cape Cod Canal including areas of Bourne and Wareham, all the way around Provincetown south to Pleasant Bay and northern parts of Chatham were indefinitely closed to all shellfishing.

Nantucket has submitted samples of shellfish meat to the state for testing, and Nantucket Sound, Monomoy, and Martha's Vineyard also remained open.

What's safe to eat?

Shellfish already in stores and restaurants can be considered safe to eat. That's because:

This is not good news for shellfishermen or shellfish lovers on the eve of one of the two biggest weekends of the summer season.

''It's a real scramble,'' said Larry Makin, co-owner of Cape Tip Seafood in Provincetown. Cape Tip and many other seafood wholesalers and restaurants stocked up on shellfish for the weekend before the big closures.

State DMF chief shellfish biologist Michael said any thing stocked before yesterday's closure was safe to eat since his agency closes areas in advance of levels that would be toxic to humans.

Shellfish also are able to purge the toxins from their systems once the algae are gone from the water.

Eastham Lobster Pool co-owner Betty Galligan said shellfish can be imported from other parts of the country fairly easily now as opposed to when her restaurant opened 40 years ago. But the quality suffers.

''There's just something better about our steamers, mussels and oysters,'' she said.

Galligan said her restaurant goes through 20 or more bushels of shellfish a week. The big concern among suppliers yesterday was keeping restaurants stocked if it's a busy weekend and for the future if the ban lasts longer.

''It'll be a real pain if it's still closed on the Fourth of July,'' said Makin. With shellfishing shut down from Maine to Cape Cod, Makin said he was already trying to get shellfish from Canada and areas in southern New England that are still unaffected.

''We're looking at a month at a minimum,'' predicted Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution senior scientist Don Anderson, a world renowned authority on red tide and other harmful algae blooms.

Hickey said he couldn't predict when areas would be opened again, but he pointed out that cell counts in the bloom were doubling in 24 hours, indicating it is still on the increase. He said the state was concentrating on monitoring the areas that remained open to make sure they are still safe.

''I think this is definitely hitting (local shellfishermen) in the pocketbook. This is the summer kick-off weekend and sales are usually way up,'' said Wellfleet shellfish constable Andy Koch. The closure affects not only the aquaculturalists and shellfishermen, but a half dozen draggers tied up at the town pier.

The Cape is considered the state's premiere aquaculture and shellfishing region.

State figures on just how much shellfish is harvested how many fishermen are working are unreliable since the state relies on towns to keep track of those numbers. But the state does show 328 aquaculture licenses in Massachusetts in 2001 - 259 of those in Barnstable County - with almost 550 acres under cultivation. That same year, the state estimated the shellfish harvest statewide at $3.6 million, but that is considered conservative since Chatham estimates its shellfish industry brings in $4 million to $5 million annually and Wellfleet around $3 million, at least in 2000.

Barnstable County aquaculture specialist Bill Walton worried that after areas reopened, a flood of shellfish would drive prices down.

WHOI scientists were on a research cruise in early May as part of a five year study on harmful algal blooms funded by the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health. After a northeaster hammered the coast on May 7 and 8, their sampling found much higher concentrations of red tide algae than expected. At the same time, the state DMF started seeing higher levels of red tide toxins in their shellfish sampling. WHOI scientists started relaying their cell count data to the DMF and used computer models to map the progress of the outbreak. That helped the state in closing areas ahead of toxic concentrations of the algae.

Anderson said that past blooms have been highly toxic in the waters where they originated. Canada and Maine and are less potent when they arrive in Cape waters. But this bloom is being fed by organic nutrients washed into the sea by heavy May rains. At this point, places in Sandwich and Marshfield show the highest levels of toxicity in New England.

In an average year, without a major bloom, cell counts of Alexandrium could run around 100 to 200 cells per liter of water, said Hickey, ''When I'm seeing counts at 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, I'm saying 'Oh my God,'' Hickey said yesterday.

Wellfleet's closing leaves Chatham as the only major shellfish port still open from Maine to Cape Cod. Parts of Chatham are closed by red tide, but the major areas on Monomoy, Stage Harbor and south-facing beaches remain open for now.

''This is the first time I've ever dealt with this,'' said Chatham shellfish constable Stuart Moore. Moore said Chatham hasn't been closed for red tide since 1978.

Red tide's grip could be tightening on the few remaining Cape and island areas still open as the outbreak still shows no signs of waning. The bloom has been stoked by waters that remain in the perfect temperature range for algae growth and the nutrients pumped into the ocean from surging rivers and streams.

The only ingredient missing is sunlight, which the region may see over the weekend.

''A couple of days of sun and rising water temperatures could cause the bloom to explode,'' said Hickey. ''It could get worse before it gets better.''

As if the current bloom wasn't enough to bear, Anderson said Maine scientists are reporting high toxin levels from a second bloom. That will also head south, possibly within 10 days. If another storm blows the algae toward land when it passes Massachusetts Bay, it could prolong the misery.

Another WHOI research cruise, this time funded by emergency money from the National Ocean Service sets out today to continue sampling.

The gloomy outlook for fishermen matched the weather yesterday.

''This situation seems to be accelerating rather than decelerating,'' said Moore. ''We don't know what's going to happen.''

Doug Fraser can be reached at dfraser@capecodonline.com.

(Published: May 28, 2005)