Red Tide Impact Along the Maine Coast
 

We're planning a holiday in Maine - have the coastal towns been affected by this year's Red Tide? If not, is it to be anticipated?

If it occurs, will swimming not be possible or eating fresh seafood in restaurants?

Thanks.

so far, I think the Red Tide goes from Cape Cod to Portland. According the the Boston area papers, swimming and eating fish are both perfectly safe. It appears to be only the shellfish. So you may not be able to get local clams, oysters or mussels. I guess the bacteria from the red tide get concentrated in the shellfish in unsafe amounts. whatever you might ingest while swimming is harmless.

there have been lots of stories about it in the Boston globe. You can probably find them in boston.com (free registration required).

You don't see or smell red tide, but the bi-valves filter it out and it concentrates in them so you can't eat clams, mussles or oysters that come from closed areas. It doesn't affect lobster or fish. You can swim to your hearts content. You won't know there's red tide except there aren't clam diggers on the flats. Clams are being shipped in from areas not affected so you can still get them if you want them.

Thank you china_cat and tbelgian for your responses. I guess New England Red Tide and the one in Florida are not one and the same; would that be correct?

See this recent post...

Author: joan
Date: 06/15/2005, 07:46 am
TAMPA BAY, Treasure Island. Lots of red tide here now (June 15), since Tropical Storm Arlene brought five days of strong winds from the south, blowing the tide northward to our area. The last two days, many dead fish, coughing tourists, and you can smell it in the air when you leave the house. This is still not being reported on the Mote Marine Red Tide Update Page...

Yechhh!!! Go away!

Isn't that interesting? I have also been reading about the differences with great interest. I wonder if it is due to the air and water temps. Our New England beaches are pretty cool & windy, so perhaps it doesn't "hang" in the air. But it does not create a fish-kill either, so maybe it is just a different strain. The biggest issue here is the economic impact on our local fisherman. You cannot eat local shellfish (mussels, clams, oysters) during a red tide; it is very dangerous. But all the restaurants have it imported; it's just a bit more expensive. And as others have noted, it doesn't affect lobster or fish. Our reports show it from Bar Harbor all the way down to Cape Cod and the islands. They say it's the worst outbreak since 1972, but insist it is perfectly safe for swimming. It has never affected us, and we have been here since before 1972!

ttt