Bourne Shellfish Closure - Red Tide

[Poppr]

Since the closure of fishing areas due to the red tide I have been looking for information as to how long this closure may last. Information is not easy to come by.

Asking long time neighbors and other fisherman is not yielding any predictable results since the last major closure of this type was so long ago (1972).

Todays CC Times had an article that gives some insight into the process of reopening closed areas. Looks like it could be a long time for these test to be completed succesfully to open ANY area in MA.

Bottom line after reading the article is that I'm setting my over/under date at July 15th....and I'm taking the over. :mad:

If anyone has any data on how long it takes for the shellfish to metabolize the toxins once the red tide clears out I would be interested in hearing some facts, theories, or just plain conjecture.

Here is the link to a couple of articles from today's CC Times.

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes...declares10.htm

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes...ngclosed10.htm

[pushaw]

I think it takes the shellfish a matter of a few days to a few weeks to cleanse themselves of the toxins. They'd probably reopen things a few weeks after the red tide is over, which should come soon with the warm southwest breezes we're supposed to continue getting. July 15 sounds like a good guess to me as to when they'll be safe to harvest again most places. It might take a lot longer up in Maine.

[mdrew9]

I believe its 7 weeks for the shellfish to metabolize the toxins.

[ccrods]

Only the southern area of Maine is closed. One clam buyer I know from Maine is still getting 150 bushels of clams a day. As for the length off the shut down who knows, we on the Cape are fortunate as to the fact that other areas in Massachusetts and coastal Maine get shut down for a few days after a half inch of rain.

The part that I find very interesting is the State of Emergency, I think it will be interesting to see how that pans out, all the buyers that buy soft shell clams in Chatham pay cash for the clams day in and day out. While I do not want to accuse these guys of any wrongdoing, I just think it may open up a can of worms.

[Poppr]

Which can of worms? I can think of about a dozen.

I'm not sure what take to have on the "state of emergency" myself. Just talking about it makes the Gov. look like a man who "feels" for the workers, especially when he may have higher political aspirations. Same thoughts on all the other politicos getting involved.

While I consider it to be harming a very select group of individuals economic viability I'm not sure I would call it an "emergency".

Sure it is an unfortunate series of events which caused a temporary closure of a natural resource but it is temporary in nature but it was not an unforseable problem. It will pass.

Plenty of folks live paycheck to paycheck but we don't call it a "state of emergency" if 3000 of those go a few weeks without work. Or folks who choose not to work when work is available but would rather live off the state. If anything positive, at least it did happen during the tourist season and in the short term folks who make a living off of the money the shellfishermen spend are getting some income from the tourist side of the house. May have had a much larger trickle down effect if it happened during the off season for tourism.

You're right. Lets knock it off before we open up too many cans of worms and turn the thread into a discussion of the benifits of socialism versus capitalisms of or the political beifit to be gained by other peolples problems.

I just want to dig some fresh quahogs and get the melted butter, chowder, and clams casino cooking!