Consumers Have Red Tide Jitters

Consumers Have Red Tide Jitters
By Alison Arnett and Joe Yonan, Globe Staff  |  June 8, 2005

Even in the middle of the worst red tide outbreak in New England in three decades, Walt Averill doesn't worry about ordering oysters and clams -- at least not from the sleek little B&G Oysters in the South End.

'I figure a restaurant like this is going to do whatever they have to do, and if their oysters and clams aren't worth serving they're not going to serve them," says Averill, 37, who was visiting Boston from California's Sonoma County with his wife, Maire Murphy. 'I don't worry about places that are high-quality."

In restaurants and seafood markets across the area, customers worried about red tide are asking more questions. So far, demand for seafood hasn't dropped. State officials say that all seafood currently on the market is safe to consume, since beds are closed as soon as samples show that red-tide concentrations are at or near toxic levels. The shellfish you see on a menu or in a market comes from sea beds outside the affected areas, say restaurateurs and retail shop owners, or was harvested before the beds were closed.

But that message doesn't always reach the customer. Manager Janet Kim says B&G's customers have been 'kind of tentative" about ordering. 'They still eat oysters and clams," says the restaurant's chef, Greg Reeves. 'They just ask more questions." In fact, says Jeff Nace of Neptune Oyster in the North End, people even question whether lobster, which is not affected by red tide, is safe to eat.

At Jasper White's Summer Shack in Cambridge, Brian Flagg, executive chef for both this restaurant and the Boston location, says his buyer is bringing in shellfish from northern Maine, Canada, and other waters outside the affected areas, but not raising prices. 'We have to look a little harder for our product," he says.Nobody does anything shady during red tide," says the Summer Shack chef. 'It would be insane."

State fishery authorities began closing shellfish beds in May from central Maine to Chatham and Nantucket. On Monday, they also closed the channel between the Cape and Nantucket, and the Nantucket Sound waters off Martha's Vineyard. As of yesterday, beds in Buzzards Bay, Vineyard Sound, and Rhode Island were still open, according to the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. This outbreak of red tide -- the result of an explosion, or bloom, of one-celled organisms that cause toxins in clams, mussels, and other shellfish -- moved north to south, says Dave Whittaker, senior marine biologist for Massachusetts Division of Fisheries. The edible part of sea scallops, the adductor muscle, does not collect the toxin and is safe to eat, he says, though bay scallops, not now in season, would not be safe. Because the bloom of algae, which occurs often during the warmer months, is so large this year, it is affecting many more beds than usual. Spring nor'easter storms carried the bloom quickly from Maine to Massachusetts and around the Cape. Every year, shellfish is monitored closely from March to November, fishery officials say. Whittaker says the state had been closing beds even before red tide reaches them. 'We want to get the beds closed prior to any shellfish getting to the market," says J. Michael Hickey, Massachusetts's chief shellfish biologist.

Red tide algae can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning. Toxins affect the nervous system within 30 minutes, with symptoms that include tingling of the lips and tongue, headaches, dizziness, and nausea. In severe cases, muscular paralysis and respiratory difficulties may occur, or even death; there have been no deaths in New England since red tide was first officially recorded in local waters in 1972. No cases of shellfish poisoning have been reported in this red tide explosion, says Donna Rheaume of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

But those organisms don't actually harm the shellfish, says Pat Woodbury, who sells his Wellfleet clams and oysters to upscale Boston restaurants. Shellfish flush water through their systems, ingesting the organisms that build up toxins. Once the red tide dissipates, the toxins eventually wash out of the shellfish and they're again safe to eat, he says. After testing shows the shellfish to be free of toxins, they can be harvested and sold. But this year's outbreak, which some experts say may last 8 to 10 weeks, 'will ruin my summer," says the shellfish farmer. However, he's concentrating on seeding his beds and keeping his small crew busy until they can sell again.

Meanwhile, Roger Berkowitz of Legal Sea Foods, which tests all seafood for contaminants at its own plant, says he's buying steamers from Nova Scotia, fry clams from Prince Edward Island, littlenecks and countnecks from Rhode Island, and oysters from PEI and Maine's Damariscotta River. Nace, co-owner of Neptune Oyster, says he's been offering a lot of West Coast varieties since the closing of local beds.

While some restaurants might absorb the higher cost of serving shellfish flown across country, local fishmongers feel the pinch. George Adams of Adams Fish Market in Dorchester, which sells retail seafood and takeout, has Maryland and Canada clams in the case now. Prices for frying clams that are normally $60 to $70 a gallon wholesale, Adams says, cost him $100 a gallon. He calls these 'Fourth of July prices." Kim Marden of Captain Marden's Seafoods of Wellesley, retailers and wholesalers, says he brings in mussels from Prince Edward Island, and clams from Canada and Maryland. The clam prices are higher right now, he says, since the beds off Cape Ann have been closed.

At Morse Fish Co., which has been selling fresh and fried seafood for more than a century on the South End's Washington Street, 'everybody comes in with a question about red tide," says manager John Blacker. 'Everybody reads the paper or listens to the news, and a lot of people are staying off shellfish."

Blacker wasn't sure where Morse would be getting clams and oysters now that so many local shellfish beds are closed. Owner George Doherty handles ordering, but he predicted a price increase next week, particularly for steamer clams, which Morse normally gets from Ipswich.

'It's not just the red tide that will cause the price increase," he says. 'It's demand. Soon as all the beaches open up, everybody wants steamers. We can't keep them in the place."