East Coast Shellfish Growers Association June 2024 Newsletter
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—Continued from page 1<br />
Birds on Gear a Problem<br />
formally accepted by the FDA in<br />
a few months.<br />
I headed up two sessions at the<br />
National <strong>Shellfish</strong>eries <strong>Association</strong><br />
annual meeting in March,<br />
and posted the notes from those<br />
sessions 1 and a brief webinar 2 on<br />
shellfish sanitation and birds to<br />
the ECSGA website.<br />
This spring the ISSC Executive<br />
Board agreed to establish a committee<br />
to conduct a literature<br />
review, and to hold a workshop<br />
on guano remediation. One of<br />
the key challenges: although<br />
sea birds excrete high levels of<br />
coliform-indicator bacteria, they<br />
only rarely carry human pathogens.<br />
Nevertheless, high coliform<br />
levels can force the closure<br />
of harvest areas even though the<br />
risk of human illness may be<br />
relatively low.<br />
In April the Environmental<br />
Protection Agency published a<br />
283-page document highlighting<br />
how the presence of fecal-coliform-indicator<br />
bacteria is a poor<br />
predictor of risk when waters<br />
are primarily contaminated with<br />
fecal material from non-human<br />
animals (such as dogs, livestock<br />
or wild birds). These Technical<br />
Support Materials 3 are posted on<br />
the ECSGA website and provide<br />
the foundation for discussions<br />
on how to conduct a risk analysis<br />
on bird waste. The hope is<br />
that with continued research, we<br />
can avoid unnecessary closures<br />
of harvest areas impacted by<br />
nearby birds.<br />
While the risk of human illness<br />
may be low, it is clearly not<br />
negligible. <strong>Growers</strong> should do<br />
everything possible to deter birds<br />
from landing on their gear, and<br />
plenty of new ideas and refinements<br />
are being developed and<br />
evaluated. At minimum, guano<br />
on food is a bad look, but it<br />
can be catastrophic if it results<br />
in closing growing areas. Stay<br />
tuned for more developments on<br />
this issue.<br />
Hyperlinks<br />
1. ecsga.org/bird-interactions/<br />
#nsa-notes-11<br />
Covering Your Operation From Ship-to-Shore and Shore-to-Door<br />
Brendan Crawford<br />
Marine Insurance Advisor<br />
O. 401.314.4658<br />
C. 401.477.2277<br />
E. bcrawford@crvinsurance.com<br />
Our Specialties Include<br />
Aquaculture, Wholesale Seafood, Commercial Vessels<br />
Marine Manufacturing, Retail Markets, Restaurants<br />
Ocean Marine, Specialty Operations<br />
Answers in Hours,<br />
Not Days<br />
ELISA test kits for ASP, DSP,<br />
Saxitoxins and Brevetoxin<br />
• Quantitative answers in ~2 hours<br />
• Test shellfish or seawater<br />
• Proven ELISA technology<br />
• Require only basic lab skills and equipment<br />
See our Algal Toxin and Marine Biotoxin<br />
test kits at www.abraxiskits.com!<br />
We are a proud supporter of the <strong>East</strong><br />
<strong>Coast</strong> <strong>Shellfish</strong> <strong>Growers</strong> <strong>Association</strong><br />
2. ecsga.org/bird-interactions/<br />
#shell-san-birds-ppt<br />
3. ecsga.org/bird-interactions/<br />
#epa<br />
Gold Standard Diagnostics Horsham, Inc., PA, USA | P: 215-357-3911<br />
ECSGA <strong>Newsletter</strong> Issue 2 <strong>June</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
Page 19
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