Official: Coast seafood safe to eat despite algae

BILOXI -- Five days after an aggressive algae bloom killed thousands of fish and shut down Coast beaches and oyster reefs, state Department of Marine Resource officials are saying the seafood is safe to eat.

During the regular meeting of the Commission for Marine Resources on Tuesday, Joe Jewell, director of the Office of Marine Fisheries, assured commission members that restaurant and market seafood sold along the Coast, as well as locally sourced seafood, poses no immediate health threats.

"The seafood in our restaurants and markets is safe to eat," Jewell said.

But he said to only eat the tissue of fish and not the organs until further notice.

"Don't eat the dead or distressed fish that have washed up on the shore," he said. "This is not a jubilee."

It's been more than two weeks since the first water samples collected from the Mississippi Sound showed trace amounts of the organism Karenia brevis. Commonly known as red tide, large amounts of the algae can be deadly to marine life, as well as pose some respiratory complications for humans.

Low amounts of the algae -- 1,000 to 10,000 cells found per liter of water -- are enough to close oyster reefs.

The red tide that extends from Florida to Louisiana contains some spots with more than 1 million cells per liter and has been deemed the worst algae bloom in Mississippi's history by marine scientists.

It was determined to have caused several fish kills along area beaches, including somewhat large ones in Biloxi and Pascagoula.

Samples collected Tuesday south of the barrier islands showed between 300,000 and 400,000 cells per unit of the algae.

"Somewhere around 100,000 is where you can clearly see it in the water," Jewell said. "An extremely high count is a million and above and it creates a very distinct red or orange discoloration of the water."

Jewell said 39 of 126 water samples collected since Dec. 2 have tested positive for the algae.

"We have collected more water samples in this event than we have in the history of our agency," he said. "We take this event seriously and we are doing all we can to respond to it."

The closure of oyster reefs comes during a season that has been somewhat rocky.

Rising rivers in November halted the season after being open for only two days. The CMR then lowered the season's sack limit from 45,000 to 35,000.

So far, about 13,500 sacks have been harvested in the Mississippi Sound. Jewell said about 75 percent of the haul was harvested from Henderson Reef in Pass Christian.

And the closure of oyster reefs could have a negative impact on the local economy.

Pass Christian Harbor Master Willie Davis said things have been extremely slow since the closure.

"When they closed the oyster reef, it just stopped everything," he said. "There are still a few fishermen out there but the oyster folks are out of work."

With colder temperatures expected to move in this weekend, Jewell said it could help to dissipate the algae bloom, which thrives in warmer water.

Davis said the cold weather will be welcomed by oystermen in Pass Christian.

"These people are out of work and Christmas is coming up," he said. "Hopefully, this cold weather will knock it out."

DMR Executive Director Jamie Miller said he believes the oyster industry will recover.

"The direct impact that we are seeing is on our oyster industry," DMR Executive Director Jamie Miller said. "We closed the reefs as a precautionary measure so we can do some significant testing. But I think we can make it up when we reopen the reefs. We just want people to know that's safe to eat seafood in restaurants."

The worst of the fish and bird kills along the Coast may have passed, according to Wild at Heart Rescue, an animal rehab organization in Vancleave.

Wild at Heart volunteers have picked up 59 sick birds from the beaches since Saturday though all of them later died, Founder Missy Dubuisson said.

"The birds would be breathing, and by the time they were picked up and put in containers, they would die," she said.

Forty birds were found Saturday, and another 14 were found Monday, leading Dubuisson to believe the situation is improving.

Wild at Heart is hosting a Star Wars themed fundraiser 5 p.m. Thursday at the the Grand Theatre in D'Iberville.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 5:40 PM with the headline "Official: Coast seafood safe to eat despite algae."