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Emergency ‘red tide’ warning issued on Cape Cod
Chatham issued an emergency “red tide” alert Saturday that closed down shellfishing until further notice.
A Cape Cod town issued an emergency “red tide” alert Saturday that closed down shellfishing until further notice.
The town of Chatham warned residents and nearby areas that the waters of Pleasant Bay, Jackknife, Potter’s Landing, North Beach, Crow’s Pond, Bassing Harbor, and Ryders Cove are closed, according to its alert center.
A red tide is a rapidly-growing algae bloom that, if severe, can cause red discoloration in the water, said Chatham Shellfish Constable Renee Gagne.
“They are triggered by a number of different qualifiers, such as water temperature and salinity,” Gagne said. “There are all sorts of different triggers and no one’s found out exactly what the precise ingredients are.”
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Gagne said the town of Orleans found elevated toxins in its waters during the once-a-week sample collections most coastal towns need to conduct. Since Pleasant Bay is shared with the two towns, that area and others were closed out of precaution.
The particular red tide found is one of two types called Alexandrium that contaminate and often kill shellfish, Gagne said. Those who consume that shellfish risk getting paralytic shellfish poisoning, which can lead to paralysis or even death.
“This is why, especially for us, we have precautionary emergency closure because our neighbors have it,” Gagne said. “We want to make sure that our waters are clear because the repercussions can be so severe.”
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Red tides are relatively rare but Gagne said the events in Chatham are happening more frequently.
“We had a red tide bloom … two years ago, and that was the first time we experienced a bloom in over 15 years,” Gagne said.
The event in 2023 was “hot” and took over two months to fully lift, according to notices. Gagne said red tides can happen more frequently in areas that have experienced them in the past due to algae cysts falling into the sediment.
Gagne said recent tests came back clean, so other areas will remain open, but currently designated areas will stay closed for now. The town will keep monitoring the waters.
“There’s that window of opportunity that they have to bloom, but eventually, the whole event will burn itself out,” Gagne said.
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