Shellfish
I don't eat shellfish. Mom always says 'Don't eat anything that can carry its house around with it. Who knows when the last time it's been cleaned' - Drop Dead Gorgeous
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Why it’s safer to eat shellfish in months with a letter ‘R’
As I was growing up, any time my mother suggested buying mussels or cockles for dinner, my gran would pipe up with the old adage that “you should only be eating shellfish when there’s an ‘R’ in the month”. In truth, my gran didn’t much care for seafood any month of the year but is there any validity in that old saying?
The waters around our coasts abound with different species of microscopic organisms. Many of them are autotrophic, which means they gain sustenance by photosynthesising the sunlight that filters down through the water column. Others are heterotrophic and need to consume prey to survive and a number of others, called mixotrophs, do a bit of both. This microscopic micro-plankton…
Resources
How Scientists Detect the Most Lethal Shellfish Toxin You've Never Heard Of
There is a weapon that is released by algae around the world and concentrated, invisible, in the flesh of shellfish. An amount the size of a poppy seed is enough to kill a grown person.
Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning Meets Its Match
Every summer, warm waters bathe the west coast of the United States, Canada, and other parts of the world in toxic algae. Particularly frightening are dinoflagellates in the genus Gonyaulax, Alexandrium, Gymnodinium, and Pyrodinium, which secrete saxitoxin, one of the world’s most lethal neurotoxins. Shellfish swallow saxitoxin and concentrate it in their bodies so readily that eating just one saxitoxin-laden mussel can cause paralysis and even death. Despite government warnings, people are poisoned every year by mussels they’ve gathered and eaten—as are birds, whales, and seals. But algae eaters—including shellfish, pufferfish, and freshwater frogs—remain blissfully unaffected.
A Huge Algae Bloom Off the Pacific Coast Is Poisoning Shellfish and Sea Lions
Scientists say the combination of especially warm ocean temperatures and large amount of agricultural runoff is contributing to the large — and toxic — bloom.
Don’t Forget: Eating These Clams Can Cause Amnesia
Domoic acid is just one of many biotoxins that accumulate in fish and shellfish. These marine biotoxins kill 900 people and poison 60,000 every year, on top of poisoning wildlife. They also exact an economic cost: When shellfish become toxic, the harvesting bans threaten the $77 million worth of shellfish sales in Washington state alone. Even worse, new research shows that people and wildlife may suffer from a different form of poisoning when they eat shellfish contaminated with domoic acid below the legal limit.
How a Neurotoxin in Crabs Causes Brain Damage
To most of us it comes as a surprise that crabs can be toxic, but we are all familiar with the rule that oysters should not be eaten except in months that contain the letter “R.” The mnemonic is a clever way to remember not to eat wild oysters and other shellfish during summer months, because the warm water fuels blooms of phytoplankton that contain toxins.
Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning
Neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP) is caused by consumption of molluscan shellfish contaminated with brevetoxins primarily produced by the dinoflagellate, Karenia brevis. Blooms of K. brevis, called Florida red tide, occur frequently along the Gulf of Mexico. Many shellfish beds in the US (and other nations) are routinely monitored for presence of K. brevis and other brevetoxin-producing organisms.
Waterborne food poisoning on the rise due to global warming, study says
Rising global temperatures are clearly linked to increasing waterborne food poisoning, particularly from eating raw oysters, along with other nasty infections, a new study shows.
Why it’s safer to eat shellfish in months with a letter ‘R’
So, in general, there is likely to be more risk of a harmful bloom in summer and, as a rule of thumb, in the past abiding by the old aphorism may have saved you from some unpleasant stomach upsets.
Harmful Algae
The consumption of shellfish (e.g. mussels, clams) is one of the most common ways for algal toxins to impact human health.
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