Eastern Reporter Bayswater & Bassendean

Swan seafood toxin warn­ing

- Ecology · Hanoi

THE Depart­ment of Health is ad­vis­ing peo­ple not to eat fish, crabs or shell­fish col­lected from within a sec­tion the Swan River.

The warn­ing zone ex­tends from Pel­i­can Point to Como Jetty and up­stream to Tonkin High­way Bridge. This area in­cludes the com­monly known ar­eas of Matilda Bay, Perth Wa­ters, El­iz­a­beth Quay, Bar­rack Street Jetty, Claise­brook Cove, May­lands Yacht Club, As­cot Wa­ters and Riverside Gar­dens.

Re­cent wa­ter test­ing has shown a de­cline in the level of po­ten­tially toxic Alexan­drium al­gae but test­ing of mus­sel and crabs has de­tected the toxin so the ex­ist­ing warn­ing re­mains in place. The warn­ing fol­lows re­cent test­ing, which has con­firmed po­ten­tially toxic mi­cro­scopic al­gae at el­e­vated lev­els.

The al­gae, Alexan­drium spp, can pro­duce a type of poi­son­ing known as par­a­lytic shell­fish poi­son­ing, and cook­ing will not de­stroy the tox­ins.

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