The State : Toxins Force Shellfish Ban

The worst toxic contamination since 1980 has forced a quarantine of non-commercial harvesting of shellfish on the coastline of Del Norte, Humboldt and Mendocino counties. State Health Director Kenneth Kizer said mussel samples from the area had potentially life-threatening levels of the toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning. He said toxin levels were the highest since paralytic shellfish poisoning was blamed for two deaths in 1980. The quarantine applies to clams, razor clams, cockles, scallops and other bivalve mollusks. Paralytic shellfish poisoning affects the nervous system after consumption of mussels and other shellfish that have fed on certain highly toxic marine organisms. Commercial harvesting is unaffected by the quarantine since there is a regulatory program to prevent shellfish with high levels of PSP toxin from reaching the market, Kizer said.