Oysters

Started by Bill B, July 14, 2021, 04:38:28 PM

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Bill B

Last weekend I was in Oceanside, Ca visiting a friend that was camping at the harbor.  Of course I took a fishing rod, but didn't put much effort into fishing.  Butt what I did find were lots of oysters!  It didn't take much to pluck a 1/2 dozen from the rocks with the mindset to eat them.  Now a quick check with the inter webs shows lots of warnings regarding the May to October mussel closure due to Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning, but could not find anything specific to oysters......so with no information to go on back they went....better safe than sorry.   So the question is, does the mussel quarantine also include oysters?   Bill
It may not be very productive,
but it's sure going to be interesting!

JasonGotaProblem

#1
A line I've often heard and generally abide by is you don't eat oysters if the current month doesn't have a letter R in the name (so May-August) because warmer waters open the door to trouble. But I'm not sure if that's just a local thing.
Any machine is a smoke machine if you use it wrong enough.

Hardy Boy

oysters are a bivalve so they are subject PSP (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning). In Canada we specify which species are open, in which areas, based on testing. While its true that summer months can be worse for PSP it can and does potentially happen at anytime of the year that's why if there is no testing then its not open. if in doubt don't eat them. The neat thing is you and I could eat some that do have PSP and you die and I don't as different people have different tolerances. You are also playing with fire if you just rub some on your lips to see if they tingle. Different species of bivalves concentrate the toxin and also get rid of the toxin at different rates so you could have oysters that are fine and in the same area have butter clams that are not safe to eat. 

Cheers:

Todd
Todd

Cuttyhunker

Bill
Contact the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Assn
PCSGA.org
There's a phone number at the bottom of the page.
The last thing these folks want in anyone getting sick from any wild or farmed oysters.
Doomed from childhood

Maxed Out

#4
 Todd nailed it !!

 Better safe than sorry when it comes to shellfish. There is no known cure for PSP poisoning
We Must Never Forget Our Veterans....God Bless Them All !!

oc1

There is a huge National Shellfish Sanitation Program that sets out the procedures the states must follow.  The state approved harvesting grounds are sampled regularly and opened and closed as needed based on lab results.  In many states, lands are leased to shellfish growers who manage the resource and it is against the law to harvest from their lease.  There will also be approved public shellfish grounds.  The regulations cover oysters, mussels, clams and scallops.  They are all filter feeders that can concentrate potential pathogens including Vibrio vulnificus, V. cholera, norovirus, hepatitus-A, and the rest.

It's a complicated system there to protect public health and the resource but it takes some study to sort out what you can and cannot do.  I love oysters.  But, in this day and age I would only eat those from currently approved grounds.   

jurelometer

In California, there are species specific shellfish closures throughout the year based on local testing of  the water and the shellfish.  I haven't harvested shellfish in years, but I used to phone  the state hotline on the day of or night before harvesting.  Here is the web page with  the current phone number:

https://wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Ocean/Health-Advisories

We also have  a regular annual mussel closure on the Pacific coast.  Mussels are the most likely to accumulate the toxin, so they just shut down the whole coast for mussels in the warm months.  The annual closure default is  somewhere around May through October, but it could start or stop at different dates on a given year.

Mussels (and/or other shellfish) could still be closed outside of the annual closure period.   Calling the hotline is the safest bet.  Useful for crabs and lobsters too, not just bivalves.  Just tried the number for fun and found out that there was a rock crab advisory in effect up north.

Wonder what the limit is for oysters in CA.  Do they fall under the blanket limit of "other sea critters" at 35?

-J