Oct

15

Galician polygons remain closed due to red tide

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Mussel farming in Galicia. (Photo: Madrimasd.org- Creative Commons 2.5. España)

Galician polygons remain closed due to red tide





SPAIN


Wednesday, October 16, 2013, 02:30 (GMT + 9)

The Technological Institute for the Control of the Marine Environment of Galicia (Intecmar) maintains platform polygons closed as well as the shellfish banks of the Galician estuaries and offshore waters after verifying the presence of significant levels of the two toxic dinoflagellates causing the red tide.

According to the director of Intecmar, Covadonga Salgado, these data and the southerly winds forecast for the coming days would converge for these waters to get into the estuaries.

If that happens, the ban on mollusc catch in the platform polygons in Galicia would worsen or at least remain as such.

Institute scientists took samples of offshore waters in the estuaries from a helicopter, whose analysis is expected to have more concrete data on the situation, Diario de Arousa reported.

So far, only an “important” growth has been determined in toxin levels in these waters.

Salgado explained that for this Tuesday “all data will be processed, both of the samples taken from the helicopter as those of the bioassays and the detection of toxins through chemical methods.”

The information collected will make it possible to evaluate the possibility to also determine the closure of some or of all of the four areas of shellfish capture that are still open in Arousa estuaries and those in Vigo.

“By knowing what dinoflagellates are in those waters, we’ll know what the shellfish is going to eat when that body of water come into the estuaries,” explained the director of Intecmar, according to the newspaper Faro de Vigo.

For his part, the President of the Mussel Regulatory Council of Galicia, Francisco Alcalde, stated that 2013 is “the worst year” that he recalls in the sector.

For the leader, the shellfish sector is “in a state of economic emergency.”

Related article:

– Red tide forces most Galician polygons’ closure

By Analia Murias
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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