The quarantine of sportingly harvested mussels is an annual event conducted by the California Department of Health and Human Services to isolate mussels that contain dangerous levels of biotoxins. This quarantine includes all mussels harvested for sport in ports, inlets and bays, and the open ocean and is normally in effect from May 1st to October 31st.
The quarantine is to protect the public from paralytic shellfish poisoning and domoic acid poisoning. These toxins are highly dangerous and responsible for many deaths worldwide. Death can occur within 30 minutes of eating mussels with high levels of these biotoxins, and no antidotes are known. Cooking does not reliably destroy toxins.
In California, deaths from paralytic shellfish poisoning are extremely rare due to the strict measures taken by the California Department of Health and Human Services. No human cases of domoic acid poisoning have been reported in California.
Mussels are particularly at risk of accumulating these toxins, but other shellfish such as oysters and mussels are not.
Ben Ruttenberg, the director of Cal Poly’s Center for Coastal Marine Sciences, is the lead scientist on the Pismo Clam Project and is evaluating factors driving the decline and recovery of Pismo Beach clams.
“The toxins generally don’t harm the shellfish, so as far as we know, they don’t affect the mussels,” Ruttenberg said. “Our monitoring data show consistent abundance trends across winter, spring, and summer surveys, supporting the belief that the blooms are not harmful to the mussels.”
The months of May to October are considered the high-risk time for marine toxins. However, the California Department of Health and Human Services may begin or extend quarantine early if existing surveillance systems indicate dangerous levels of biotoxins outside the quarantine window.
Visit the California Department of Health’s annual mussel quarantine page for more information.
Comments are closed.