Oregon authorities have expanded shellfish harvesting closures along the state’s entire coastline to include razor clams and bay clams, as already high levels of toxins that have contributed to a shellfish poisoning outbreak continue to rise.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said the new closures were due to “historic high levels” of a marine biotoxin known as paralytic shellfish poisoning. The move, announced by the department in a news release on Thursday, came after state officials similarly closed the whole coast to mussel harvesting last week.
Agriculture officials have also closed an additional bay on the state’s southern coast to commercial oyster harvesting, bringing the total of such closures to three.
Elevated levels of toxins were first detected in shellfish on the state’s central and north coasts on May 17, fish and wildlife officials said.
There’s also tar and tar covered birds washing ashore!
That’s crazy! I just looked it up. Lab testing has identified them as being petroleum-based, but researchers still have no explanation for the phenomenon.
About 2,000 lbs has been cleaned up and the source is still unknown
Sometimes tar just comes up naturally from underground and ends up in the ocean.
This is especially common if they’re talking about “tar patties the size of a sand dollar”.
Edit: Looks like this is actually ‘asphalt’ that comes up naturally. For those who haven’t heard of this phenomenon before: https://tarpits.org/experience-tar-pits/la-brea-tar-pits-and-hancock-park
It occurs throughout the world in a number of different locations. I’m not saying that this is what’s happening here, but it’s definitely a possibility, especially when people describe “tar patties the size of a sand dollar”.
And so we accidentally create an environmental pressure for shellfish that can take up large amounts of environmental toxin without dying.
