Local shellfish health advisories lifted by state
The California Department of Public Health lifted a seafood health warning issued in April about eating certain shellfish caught in Monterey or Santa Cruz Counties.
The advisories warned consumers not to eat recreationally harvested bivalve shellfish or the internal organs of commercially or recreationally caught anchovy, sardines, or crab taken from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.
Recent testing shows concentrations of domoic acid have declined to safe or undetectable levels.
Domoic acid is a naturally occurring nerve toxin that can cause illness or death in humans. There have been no reported illnesses associated with these events.
While these two health advisories have been lifted, the annual quarantine of sport-harvested mussels remains in effect for the entire California coast, including all bays and estuaries.
Commercially harvested shellfish are not included in the annual quarantine because all commercial shellfish harvesters in California are certified by the state and subject to strict testing requirements to ensure that all oysters, clams and mussels entering the marketplace are free of toxins.
