"A safe level is 80mcg
per 100g of flesh. The sample showed 263mcg per
100g of flesh," Northland Health shellfish co-ordinator
Neil Silver said.
The shellfish
gathering warning extends from Cape Brett to Howe
Pt. Other areas on the east coast, north and south
of the Bay of Islands show the presence below
regulatory level. However, it is possible that the
area covered by the warning could be extended.
The symptoms of PSP
include numbness and tingling around the mouth,
face or extremities; difficulty swallowing and
breathing, dizziness, double vision and paralysis.
PSP toxin can cause
death although no fatalities from PSP have been
reported in New Zealand to date. There is no
antidote to the toxin.
There have been no
reports of people displaying PSP symptoms in the
Bay of Islands.
"If they show any
of the symptoms they should go and see their
doctor as a matter of urgency," Mr Silver said.
It can take up to
12 hours for symptoms to develop.
An influx of
visitors to the Bay of Islands over Easter
increased the risk of people collecting shellfish
in the area, he said.
Health officials
believe the toxin is being passed onto shellfish
from an algae bloom called Alexandrium catenella.
The toxin has been
detected in the Bay of Islands before and was
present on the West Coast last year.
There have been
several outbreaks of disease related to Bay of
Islands shellfish in the past few years.
These include a
hepatitis A outbreak which affected 14 people
involved in collecting contaminated mussels from
Moturoa Island in 1999.
Traces of the
Norwalk gastroenteritis virus were recorded in
1994, 1999 and again in 2001 in several Auckland
restaurants, and were linked to contaminated
oysters from the Waikare Inlet.
Bay of Islands
oyster farmers' spokesman Charlie Davenport said
there was little the farmers could do about the
latest scare.
"It's a natural
phenomenon and it might take a big storm to churn
it up and get rid of it," Mr Davenport said. "But
the farms will have to close and everybody will be
peeved off about it."
It was not worth
putting the export market at risk for the sake of
waiting a few days for it to clear, he said.
The Bay's oyster
industry was conservatively worth $30 million a
year.
"It's a bit of a
nuisance. But the oysters are not that fat at the
moment anyway and they will still be there next
week," he said.
There are 19 oyster
farms in Orongo Bay, 21 in the Waikare Inlet
(although 18 Waikare Inlet farms have already been
closed due to the Norwalk virus), 10 in Kerikeri
Inlet, four in Te Puna Inlet and one in Paroa Bay.
Aquaculture
Federation chairman Bevan Wilkie said halting
shellfish gathering in the Bay of Islands would
effect a multi-million-dollar industry.
He said 86 per cent
of Northland's export oysters were farmed in the
Bay.
Only Seafood
restaurant owner Calvin Shepherd, of Paihia, did
not envisage the ban having a major effect on his
business.
"The only real
effect is that we will have to bring oysters in
from outside the area," Mr Shepherd said
yesterday.
