After prolonged red tide closures in 2005, help is finally on the horizon for Maine’s shellfish industry. Department of Marine Resources (DMR) scientist Darcie Couture said recently that Jan. 31, 2007, was the target date for mailing out relief checks from the $2 million Red Tide Disaster Relief Fund approved by Congress last year. She added that 2005 was just about the worst year on record for red tide events along Maine’s coast.
“Last year was a bad year,” commented Couture, “but not as bad as 2005. That was the worst that we’ve seen in five or ten years.”
DMR officials held meetings in Whiting, Portland and Ellsworth last summer to get feedback from shellfish harvesters on their preliminary proposal submitted to the federal government. Members of the recently formed Maine Seafood Alliance recommended that all $2 million go directly to shellfish harvesters.
The manager of the Ellsworth-based Maine Shellfish Company attended some of those meetings. Manager Steve Beathem explained recently that the seafood alliance made that recommendation because it believed that the harvesters were more affected by the closures than anyone else.
“The dealers usually have more than one thing going on,” explained Beathem. “Harvesters — that’s their only means of income, most of the time. Every day that there’s a closure they don’t get paid. That means they’re more affected than other people.”
The final decision, however, was to allocate $1.6 million in relief funds to shellfish harvesters, aquaculturists and dealers whose incomes were affected by the 2005 red tide event. DMR employee Togue Brawn, who oversees the program, reported that just over 800 people applied for the funds.
“We sent out around 2,000 applications and received back fewer than we expected,” said Brawn.
The remaining red tide relief funds will be used to finance two programs that could help to reduce the economic impact of future red tide events. The first would involve research regarding the feasibility of making shellfish infected with red tide toxins safe for human consumption by using a depuration process yet to be developed.
Darcie Couture explained the DMR is considering a depuration system similar to the one that’s currently used for purging bacteria from shellfish.
“It would be like a miniature waste treatment plant,” said Couture, adding that $30,000 has been allocated for that program. She said the DMR would be accepting bids from persons interested in researching that type of system and developing a feasible plan.
According to Couture, the only company in Maine that is currently using a depuration process for bacteria-infected shellfish is Spinney Creek Shellfish Company, in Eliot.
Lori Howell (co-owner of the Spinney Creek business) said recently that her family has been using depuration to remove bacteria from shellfish for many years.
“There are only five or six of these plants in the United States and seven or eight in Canada,” said Howell. “We do softshell clams, quahogs and American and European oysters. It also works for mussels but we don’t do those.”
Howell explained that they soak the bacteria-infected clams and oysters in racks inside tanks of flowing, sterile seawater for 44 hours and the creatures actually clear themselves during that time. She said that not many people are doing it anymore because there are a lot of regulations that must be met. The company is interested in researching the possibility of a depuration system for shellfish infected with red tide toxin, even though she thinks that it would be much more complicated than depuration of bacteria-infected shellfish.
“Clamming in Maine is almost a $17 million a year business,” commented Howell. “I think that we should continue looking at how to improve that business.”
The DMR has also budgeted money for a fine-scale monitoring program like the one used in Casco Bay during 2006.
“We were able to fine tune where to put closure lines for red tide in Casco Bay,” said Couture. “That definitely resulted in more openings.”
No red tide-related illnesses were confirmed during the recent outbreaks, suggesting that Maine has a monitoring system that works.
“During the 2005 red tide outbreak, the state of Maine shipped more than 4 million pounds ]of shellfish] to market without a single reported case of [red-tide related] illness, which means the system works,” commented Steve Beathem.
A scientist from the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who has been involved in researching red tide events along the Maine and Massachusetts coastline also commended the Maine DMR for its excellent monitoring program during the 2005 outbreak. Scientist Dennis McGillicuddy said that both Maine’s DMR staff and staff at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries had done a great job in helping to prevent illnesses during the outbreak.
“When you consider how much coastline is protected, it’s really remarkable,” said McGillicuddy.