PCSGA Tidings

By Mike Urch, Seafood­Source con­tribut­ing edi­tor
21 June, 2010 — The British Food Stan­dards Agency (FSA) com­pletely ignores shell­fish in its seafood con­sump­tion rec­om­men­da­tions. This is despite the fact that shell­fish are as nutri­tious as fin­fish and, in some instances, more ben­e­fi­cial to human health.

The agency advises con­sumers to eat at least two por­tions of fish a week, includ­ing one of oily fish, but there is no men­tion of whether peo­ple should include shell­fish as one of their seafood meal options.

“The FSA should be includ­ing shell­fish in its two-a-week mes­sage,” said Tom Pick­erell, direc­tor of the Shell­fish Con­tinue Reading »

(This recipe uses about half of one geo­duck and will serve 4–6 peo­ple as an appetizer.)

2 tbsp fresh green onion (scal­lions)
1/2 small, ripe papaya, seeded, and diced
Juice of 1/2 lime (approx­i­mately 1 oz)
Half of one 2 pound geo­duck, minced.  (Note:  siphon meat is crunchy and crisp; body meat is more ten­der.  You can either com­bine both types or use just one, depend­ing on your tastes).
2 table­spoons finely chopped cilantro
2 tea­spoons minced fresh jalapeno or Ser­rano pep­per (more to taste)
2 tsp finely minced fresh gin­ger
Salt and pep­per to taste.

Ceviche is good served on rice crack­ers, on slices of cucum­ber of jicama, or on a bed of fresh spring greens sprin­kled with olive oil and a splash of lime.

Some bac­te­ria in the Gulf of Mex­ico love eat­ing oil as much as they like infect­ing humans.

A close rel­a­tive of the bac­te­ria infa­mous for seafood con­t­a­m­i­na­tions that often lead to fatal dis­ease, the microbe Vib­rio para­haemolyti­cus, is com­mon in warm coastal waters like the Gulf. The long comma-shaped bac­te­ria, slurped down with raw oys­ters, brings twist­ing cramps and nau­sea to 4,500 Amer­i­can shell­fish afi­ciona­dos each year.

But unlike some of its finicky peers, V. para­haemolyti­cus has a deep thirst for crude Con­tinue Reading »

Chi­nook Observer

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times… Pacific North­west oys­ter grow­ers have cause to cel­e­brate and plenty of rea­sons to worry.

Though few peo­ple like to profit from another’s mis­for­tune, there is lit­tle doubt that oil pol­lu­tion and bad pub­lic­ity impact­ing shell­fish along the pro­duc­tive Gulf Coast will improve demand for oys­ters grown in Willapa Bay and else­where in our region.

Exactly how the mas­sive oil spill will affect Con­tinue Reading »

Local grow­ers see oppor­tu­nity to meet shell­fish needs of Louisiana and east­ern U.S.

By Lynda Layne, Chi­nook Observer Correspondent

WILLAPA BAY — Days after the start of the BP oil spill in the Gulf, a Los Ange­les Times story reported that some of the oys­ter har­vest­ing beds west of the Mis­sis­sippi River had been closed by the Louisiana Depart­ment of Health and Hos­pi­tals. More clo­sures fol­lowed, as a pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure. And now that the amount of oil and dis­per­sant has increased, oys­ter har­vests are strongly threatened.

But even under the cloud of this Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon dis­as­ter, which packs poten­tial for caus­ing long-lingering dam­age to the ecosys­tem, con­sumers Con­tinue Reading »

Brett Ander­son, The Times-Picayune

The impact of the oil from the Gulf of Mex­ico spill now soil­ing the Louisiana shore­line was felt far inland on Thurs­day as P&J Oys­ter Com­pany, the country’s old­est oys­ter proces­sor and dis­trib­u­tor, ceased its shuck­ing operations.

Al Sun­seri, co-owner of P&J Oys­ter Com­pany. Photo: John McCusker/The Times-Picayune

‘We don’t want to become a K&B, McKenzie’s or Schwegmann’s. We want to prayer­fully get our waters back,’ said Sal Sun­seri, co-owner of P&J Oys­ter Company.

“The bot­tom line is that the guys that we pur­chase from are not work­ing,” said Sal Sun­seri, refer­ring to the oys­ter har­vesters Con­tinue Reading »

Tamara Keith/ NPR

June 11, 2010

After oys­ter­man Mitch Jurisich spot­ted oil ear­lier this week in Bayou La Chute, wildlife offi­cials told him he had to close his beds. He says he’s never wanted to do any­thing else — but this may be the end.

Photo: Tamara Keith/NPR

The fall­out from the BP oil spill con­tin­ues to rip­ple through the Gulf econ­omy. This week, it caught up to P&J Oys­ter Co. in New Orleans.

The own­ers say it’s the old­est con­tin­u­ously oper­at­ing oys­ter proces­sor in Amer­ica. But thanks to the oil, they now have no oys­ters Con­tinue Reading »

NEW ORLEANS – A 134-year-old New Orleans oys­ter house is prepar­ing to shuck what may be its last batch of oysters.

The BP oil spill has forced clo­sure of the oys­ter beds that are the main source for the family-owned P&J Oys­ter Co. in the French Quar­ter. Co-owner Al Sun­seri says the daily, early morn­ing shuck­ing of oys­ters Con­tinue Reading »

Wel­come to the fifth year of Sound­HAB oper­a­tion.   We are off to a slow start due to the weather, but that changes fast and so do blooms in our region. The pur­pose of this list serve is for researchers and man­agers to share timely infor­ma­tion about harm­ful algal blooms through­out the Pacific North­west but espe­cially West­ern Wash­ing­ton marine waters.  There are cur­rently 92 mem­bers with sev­eral new mem­bers this year and a few who will be actively mon­i­tor­ing dis­crete locations.

We are inter­ested in exchang­ing infor­ma­tion on all types of HABs, fish kills (wild and farmed), unusual oceano­graphic Con­tinue Reading »

June 04, 2010, 9:14 AM EDT

By Aaron Kuriloff

June 4 (Bloomberg) — The nation’s old­est con­tin­u­ally oper­ated oys­ter dealer is sur­viv­ing day-to-day as the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mex­ico chokes off its supplies.

Al Sun­seri, whose fam­ily owns the 134-year-old P&J Oys­ter Co. in New Orleans, said he can’t get enough oys­ters to process and sell to local restau­rants such as Bour­bon House and Red­fish Grill after the state barred har­vest­ing in many areas.

“We’re look­ing at work­ing when the oys­ters are avail­able,” said Sun­seri, 52, work­ing in his French Quar­ter Con­tinue Reading »

To see an updated report from NOAA’s Office of Response and Restora­tion, click HERE

To see an updated map of the BP oil spill, click HERE

Deep­wa­ter Horizon/BP Oil Spill: Fed­eral Fish­eries Clo­sure and Other Information