Gene Kearns wrote:
http://www.reflector.com/news/conten...Pollution.html



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Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Oak Island, NC.

Homepage
http://myworkshop.idleplay.net/

Rec.boats at Lee Yeaton's Bayguide
http://www.thebayguide.com/rec.boats

In some ways these "filter feeding" organisms can be considered
canaries in a coal mine.
When the water gets so polluted that it kills off clams, mussels,
oysters, etc it should be considered a potential warning for humans.

I was at the Coupeville dock one year. Coupeville is on Penn Cove on
Washington's Whidbey Island, and Penn Cove mussels are considered a
delicacy. During low tide one afternoon, two guys took a small skiff
under the dock and began scraping mussels from the creosoted pilings.
There's a convenience store, a fuel dock, and guest moorage (where some
boaters are likely to be secretly less than scrupulous about management
of waste) all located at that site. I thought "Who would want to eat
mussels scraped off those pilings?"
The answer became apparent that evening as I walked into town and
noticed what was either one of the same guys or his twin brother
working in a restaurant with "Genuine Penn Cove Mussels" on the
chalkboard. They couldn't supply all of their needs from under that
pier, but maybe they were past due with their normal commercial source?
I eat less and less seafood that isn't from Alaska or other remote,
still fairly wilderness location. Bottomfish and shellfish in
particular.

For major portions of every summer, shellfish on Washington beaches are
now considered unsafe to harvest. They collect "red tide" toxins that
transfer to humans when ingested and cause PSP (paralytic shellfish
poisoning). Not a happy concept.