Anyone catch the story about the WA woman who got sick eating clams....
who? what?where and when?

It was due to Red Tide at a beach in Pierce County...all beaches in Pierce County are now closed to shellfishing collecting.

It's getting scary out there, Most of the public beaches in south puget sound and hood canal are closed year around now due to the pollution levels. The water isn't flushed out often enough.
Personally I wouldn't eat clams from any waters in Pierce county wether there was a red tide or not.
But then again I'm a picky eater.

What about commercialy raised shellfish? Do they have any way of testing the clams and oysters they raise to make sure that they're safe to eat? I just bought a bunch of Hood Canal Oysters about a week or so ago. I didn't get sick but it kind of makes you wonder how safe the food you're eating really is. I've just always taken for granted that if you buy food from an established bussiness that it would be safe to eat.... I not so sure anymore.

Sinker, you're wrong about Hood Canal. Almost all of it is open year-round. The only place they have serious health closures is around Belfair at the very end, where tidal flushing rates are low. The rest of the canal may open and close seasonally because of clam or oyster abundance and tribal harvest, but not because of psp or pollution.

Littlezozo,

The commercially raised clams and oysters are checked a lot. They are checked very often because the commercial places are sending out clams and oysters to a lot of different restaurants and if they had an outbreak of red tide or something, it would be drastic.

~ Dr Pepper

salmonbelly, thats why I said the SOUTHERN portions of puget sound and hood canal.
The upper portion of the canal gets some pretty good current flushing through there.

I know of at least two oyster growers in the sound that stop selling oysters on July 1, voluntarily. They do this because oysters generally have a lower tablefare quality due to spawning (they get even snottier), and the increased chance of vibrio. Check the redtide hotline before you go. There wast also an extremely low tide this weekend, so this brings out all sorts of folks who think, "Well, if 'ITS' alive, it can possibly be poisonous, can it?" Andy