Posted on 07/30/2010 10:02:20 PM PDT by Coleus
New Jersey faces a potential shutdown of its $790 million oyster, clam and mussel harvest if federally-mandated health inspections and coastal patrols are not improved this summer, according to state and federal authorities. How the state responds over the next few months to federal requirements geared toward preventing outbreaks of illness from contaminated shellfish is crucial to the mollusk industry, said officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA contends the state Department of Health and Senior Services failed to conduct adequate inspections in 2008 and 2009 at plants that process the mollusks hauled in by small, commercial fishing operations.
The financially strapped state Department of Environmental Protection also failed, the FDA said, to conduct mandated patrols of polluted coastal waters to guard against the poaching and illegal sale of contaminated mollusks. "As New Jersey attempts to adjust to the impacts of the economic downturn, it is important for the department to consider that further cuts in these field functions will likely result in N.J.’s inability to maintain compliance," Gary J. Wolf, shellfish specialist for the FDA’s Central Region, wrote in a federal assessment report.
Unless adjustments are made, he said the state may not be able to go forward "without the closure of a significant portion of NJ’s coastal waters to shellfish harvest." Wolf additionally told The Star-Ledger that state officials are working "to come into compliance," but will be monitored this summer because the FDA is obligated to suspend shellfish shipments from any state that fails to correct deficiencies in its shellfish program.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
You put enough Tabasco and vodka on a mollusk and who cares where it’s been. Those bacteria are toast.
If it tastes like gear oil, drink a chaser of Corexit. The ones next year will be better.
What sector of free enterprize doesn’t the government want to shut down? They won’t be happy until we are sitting on piles of dung sucking up bugs with a straw.
Just make sure state resources are not used. That’s illegal.
“....or is this necessary?”
Well, I’m of two minds about this. It’s none of the governments business, IMHO. But on the other hand, oysters are filter feeders. It just depends on what they are filtering. Downstream from New Orleans would be a bad oyster. I’m not sure what these NJ oysters are downstream from.
There was a similar proposal regarding lobsters recently, too. I thought it odd at the time.
“The vote by the American Lobster Management Board came after lobstermen said a possible five-year ban on lobster fishing from south of Cape Cod, Mass., to North Carolina would destroy their businesses just as the species is rebounding.
Board member Bill McElroy, a Rhode Island lobsterman, argued a moratorium made no sense, since lobstermen aren’t overfishing and a moratorium wouldn’t rebuild the lobster population to levels regulators are targeting.”
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/07/proposal-ban-lobstering-mass-nc-killed
“..Obama Admin Jumps to Squelch Rumors of U.S. Fishing Ban”
By ALLISON WINTER of Greenwire
Published: March 11, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/03/11/11greenwire-obama-admin-jumps-to-squelch-rumors-of-us-fish-65275.html
“You put enough Tabasco and vodka on a mollusk and who cares where it’s been. Those bacteria are toast.”
The bacteria may be toast, but the chemical pollution will still be there.
Personally, I don't eat shellfish unless I know the harvester or harvest them myself. Caveat Emptor and all of that.
/johnny
The government believes that if they don’t regulate it then these fishermen will throw bad fish on the market willy nilly. That thought is BS.
If they put bad fish on the market it will be found out and they will be shut down for good along with lawsuits. Shell fish are tagged with the bed and harvest date they are taken from. This tag is recorded and maintained for several weeks by the restaurant you get them from or the grocer you buy them from.
The government believes that if they don’t regulate it then these fishermen will throw bad fish on the market willy nilly. That thought is BS.
If they put bad fish on the market it will be found out and they will be shut down for good along with lawsuits. Shell fish are tagged with the bed and harvest date they are taken from. This tag is recorded and maintained for several weeks by the restaurant you get them from or the grocer you buy them from.
So true. Better living through chemistry. We all have to die someday, even if we eat only celery...what a horrible death that would be.
Federal pressure on Republican governor...next story please...
Regulating food and drugs are not enumerated powers specifically listed in Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution! Therefore the mere existence of the FDA is unconstitutional! The FDA must be abolished!
Contamination not good unless it is blessed by them
Weird how this hammer’s falling when there’s a Republican in the gov’s mansion.
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