NORTH COAST
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015
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State Health
mandates
rapid cooling
for harvested
oysters
By KATIE WILSON
EO Media Group
PACIFIC COUNTY, Wash.
— Starting May 1, oyster har-
vesters and processors across
Washington will have to get
their oysters on ice and cooled
down in less than half the time
they were allowed before. The
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ly alter how the industry op-
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gue it will do more to prevent
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Washington’s shellfish
industry brings more than
$270 million to the state’s
economy and includes about
349 licensees who handle
everything from oysters to
hard-shell clams and geo-
ducks. Of these licensees,
about 150 deal with oysters
during the summer months
and will be the ones directly
affected by the rule change.
The industry nationwide
has operated under regularly
updated control plans since
1997. These plans outline
harvest methods, tempera-
ture control limits, environ-
mental monitoring and more
— all designed to reduce the
risk of illnesses associated
with the pathogenic form of
a bacteria found in oysters,
Vibrio
parahaemolyticus.
Vibrio can cause gastro-
intestinal illness in people
who consume raw or under-
cooked oysters.
Under the new rule, in-
land and coastal operations
will be broken into risk
categories based on wheth-
er a certain number of vib-
riosis-related illnesses have
been proven in an area in
the last five years. All of the
Willapa Bay and Grays Har-
bor growing areas are in the
risk 1 category — the lowest
risk.
They used to have 10
hours after oysters were ex-
posed to air temperatures to
get the product on ice and
then 10 more hours to get
them down to 50 degrees
Fahrenheit, and only in July
and August. But now, be-
tween the months of June and
September, they will have
nine hours total to get their
oysters contained, cold and
down to safe temperature.
Under the new rule, if air
temperatures rise, those nine
hours will drop to seven or
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could be shut down entirely if
the weather gets hot enough.
“It is unlikely the coast
would reach those tempera-
tures,” said Laura Johnson,
with the Washington State
Health Department’s shell-
fish program in the office
of environmental health
and safety. Still, she added,
the coast had an unusually
warm and long summer last
year.
“This summer could be
tough,” she said.
Control plans
not working
The Vibrio bacterium
becomes active at warmer
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Leading peninsula oysterman Fritz Wiegardt, pictured walking in one of his oyster beds,
and other Washington state oyster growers will have to speed the time between harvest
and product icing under a new regulatory scheme being implemented by the Washing-
ton State Department of Health.
temperatures after being ex-
posed to the air. Outbreaks
occur most often during the
summer months. Any state
that has had an outbreak is
required to also have a con-
trol plan.
Washington has had two
large outbreaks, one in 1997
and another in 2006, and 40
to 50 vibriosis-related ill-
nesses can be traced back to
the state’s commercial oys-
ter harvest each year. For ev-
ery single reported case, the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention estimates an
additional 156 illnesses oc-
cur.
The control plans ar-
en’t working, concluded
researchers with the Wash-
ington State Department
of Health. Over the years,
there has been an increase in
coastal illnesses, especially
in the month of September,
they said.
Johnson said Washing-
ton’s new rule seeks to use
temperature to be proactive
versus reactive.
Investing in
infrastructure
The newly defined risk
category 1 operations have
a wide window compared to
the category 2 and category
3 operations. From May to
September, category 2 oper-
ations will have seven hours
from time of harvest to cool-
ing; category 3, which in-
cludes a number of inland
operations, will have only
five hours.
“We here are lucky we’re
risk category 1,” said Mon-
ica Pine, plant manager for
Bay Center Mariculture in
Bay Center.
Still, the rule change
could mean significant in-
vestment in new infrastruc-
ture or changes in harvest-
ing and buying practices for
some companies — and it
guarantees a lot more paper-
work for everyone.
The Port of Peninsula, for
example, immediately began
planning to invest in a com-
mercial ice machine capable
of producing 20,000 pounds
of flake ice daily after the
rule was adopted in March.
While individual operations
might have small ice ma-
chines, there was nothing in
the area that could generate
quite so much ice, said Jay
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Personius, the port’s eco-
nomic development officer.
It would be impossible
for “business as usual to con-
tinue in the oysterfields this
summer without hundreds of
tons of ice,” Personius said.
The port plans to make
the ice available at market
rates in 500-pound totes to
area businesses and individ-
uals, but priority goes to the
shellfish operations affected
by time and temperature reg-
ulations.
Johnson is traveling from
training to training but com-
panies have only a few more
weeks to get everything in
place that they’ll need in or-
der to comply with the new
rule. Companies will have
two options when it comes
to taking temperatures when
the oysters first leave the
water: they can take the wa-
ter temperature at the depth
of the oysters being harvest-
ed or they can take meat
temperature from an oyster.
In general, Pine and oth-
ers believe larger companies
might struggle more with
the rule change, especially if
they are getting oysters from
a variety of harvesters.
Everyone at the training
Pine attended was “hem and
hawing” about what they
would do, Pine said.
“I think this first year is
going to be trial and error
for most of us, including
the health department to see
how it works,” Pine said. “...
This first year they’re being
lenient on everyone because
it’s new.”
6
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