In Reply to: Re: Red tide & lobster posted by Deb Karimoto on October 04, 2005 at 18:49:08:

Debbie covered the issue quite nicely. I would just add that the recurrent red tides in southern California have been nontoxic - meaning that the predominant dinoflagellate species causing them does not produce either domoic acid or the paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins that can concentrate in bivalve shellfish and crustacean viscera (crab "butter", lobster "tomale"). Keep in mind that millions of cells of a nontoxic species in a liter of water (that's a typical bloom concentration) are going to change the local water chemistry a bit: there have been anecdotal reports of respiratory affects and irritation of mucous membranes in some that chose to swim through this mess.

Fyi the California Department of Health Services' marine biotoxin monitoring program has a volunteer-based phytoplankton monitoring component so we do our best to keep track of what phytoplankton species are around, particularly when we receive reports of red tides or other environmental cues. Sorry for the long-winded response!

Gregg