MS seafood safe; algae questionable

The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (DMR) says it’s safe to eat the seafood coming from the Mississippi Sound. It’s the first sign of positive news this summer for coastal Mississippi. “The seafood is safe to eat,” Joe Spraggins, executive director of the DMR, told the Mississippi Business Journal on July 16. The concern has been about algae forming from non-saline waters being dumped into the Gulf of Mexico from the Bonnet Carre Spillway in Louisiana, which has been open since Feb. 27, to protect upstream land from flooding. The spillway’s water dump comes from the Mississippi River into Lake Pontchartrain and then the Gulf of Mexico. The state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) closed all 21 beaches in June to protect the public from blue-green algae that can cause rashes, vomiting and diarrhea. State epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said July 16 that he “would imagine if there had been an outbreak we would have heard about it.” The absence of an outbreak evidently is the result of the state agencies’ continuous testing and closing the beaches. As an aside, beachside waters evidently are safe to use, though no one in an official capacity has made a public announcement. Restaurants and dealers are providing safe seafood because it is “monitored and tested regularly,” according to a Coastal Mississippi media release. Most of the coastal seafood restaurants are reaching beyond the Gulf Coast for fish. “Recreational and commercial fishing off-shore in Mississippi waters remains unaffected by the algal bloom and is safe for consumption,” Spraggins said. Shrimp numbers are down significantly. The five-year average for the Mississippi shrimp harvest in June is 2M pounds. This year, it’s around 500,000, Spraggins said. Gov. Phil Bryant and Mississippi’s congressional delegation have asked for federal disaster assistance due to the fresh-water intrusion and its consequences. The Army Corps of Engineers was expected to start shutting down the Bonnet Carre in mid-July, but Hurricane Barry’s soaking of the Gulf Coast has changed that outlook. (Source: Mississippi Business Journal 07/18/19)