QUILCENE — A state-imposed commercial harvest ban on Hood Canal, Dabob, Quilcene and Thordyke bays means thousands of dollars lost to longtime small-scale oyster harvesters such as Rick Olsen and Joth Davis.
Normally, they cater to the thriving Seattle-Tacoma restaurant market for raw oysters on the half-shell.
Not since Wednesday’s closure.
With the outbreak of shellfish poisoning from raw oyster consumption reaching a record high, the state has closed down all of Hood Canal to oyster harvesting.
State officials also added four new areas in the Puget Sound region to the list of closed harvesting sites.
The number of people sickened from eating raw Washington oysters this year now stands at 86, up from 70 cases confirmed just days ago.
State Department of Health officials renewed their warning to people that oysters should only be eaten after cooking to a temperature of 145 degrees.
The villain is vibrio parahaemolyticus, a naturally recurring pathogenic marine bacteria found in uncooked oysters.
It surfaces when shallow water temperatures rise to 59 degrees — and it can make raw-oyster eaters deathly ill.
Wednesday’s complete shutdown of Hood Canal and Jefferson County commercial oyster harvests comes nine years after the last such action.
Employee layoffs
The situation means about $2,000 a week in losses for Olsen and Davis.
In Olsen’s case, employees had to be laid off.
“Last week we had seven people working. This week we have none,” Olsen lamented Thursday.
“It basically has us out of business until the weather cools or water cools in September. That’s at the peak of our harvest.”