Photo by Reeve Briscoe
The county’s public health department announced that the annual mussel quarantine for California has begun.
The mussel quarantine is a yearly event that happens due to dangerous levels of biotoxins that may be present in mussels gathered by the public anywhere on the California coast. Commercially grown mussels from certified companies are not included in the quarantine.
The quarantine ordinarily goes from May 1st to October 31st, but the California department of public health may either begin the quarantine early or extend it if monitoring results indicate a presence of biotoxins outside of the normal quarantine period.
The health department says that the occurrence of biotoxins in mussels is unpredictable, there are no known antidotes, and cooking does not reliably destroy the toxins. Therefore, the quarantine provides the best approach in protecting the public from potentially deadly biotoxins.
