To the editor:
I have just read my most recent issue of Working Waterfront and, as always, found it to be enlightening and very well done. I was very happy to read the story by Wanda Curtis noting that Red Tide Disaster Relief Funds are being made available to the hard-hit shellfishermen. I was disconcerted to see in the same article a statement from Darcie Couture of the DMR indicating that they are considering a depuration system for red tide similar to the one used for purging bacteria from shellfish. This topic has been studied in several areas of the world including Maine and, put quite simply, it doesn’t work. Studies employing various techniques (e.g. food and temperature manipulations, ozone and others) have shown quite clearly that toxic shellfish do not depurate any faster under these conditions than under “normal” conditions. While it would be a great breakthrough for someone to identify an efficient and economical means of depuration, I would strongly encourage the DMR to look at what has already been done globally over the past several decades and realize that a new method is highly unlikely to be discovered for $30K. I can tell them most certainly that a depuration system similar to those used for bacteria is not going to work. The money can be better spent.
Sandra E. Shumway, Ph.D., D.Sc.
Research Professor, University of Connecticut
Groton, CT