first N.H. then Maine and now all are suffering food losses
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?smp=&lang=engThis year’s red tide outbreak has finally lapped up on the shores of Massachusetts. The state Division of Marine Fisheries today closed all coastal areas from the New Hampshire border south to the Gloucester-Manchester line to the taking of shellfish, except the adductor muscles of sea scallops, because of elevated levels of the microscopic organism that causes red tide. The South Shore and Cape Cod coasts – with the exception of the Cape’s Nauset marsh, the site of a separate, localized bloom – have not been closed yet. Marine researchers have been closely watching the annual bloom in the Gulf of Maine this spring because of several signs that indicate a heavier-than-normal bloom is under way.
New Hampshire authorities closed their shores to shellfishing last week, and sections of the Maine coast have also been closed. Researchers have been worried that the region could see a red tide outbreak that was at least as bad as the one in 2005 that caused an estimated $50 million worth of damage to the state’s shellfishing industry. During the 2005 outbreak, clam flats and oyster beds were shut down from Newburyport to Nantucket. Only parts of Boston Harbor and the South Coast avoided closures that year. The harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Maine don’t typically travel to the South Shore and Cape Cod; the blooms usually move out to sea instead. The red tide algae in the Gulf of Maine emit a toxin that can be retained by shellfish, which in turn pose a danger to humans who eat the shellfish. Despite its name, the algal blooms are often colorless.)
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less and less food in the food chain, world wide, every day.
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