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Location:
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Latitude: , Longitude:
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General location information:
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Oregon, Clatsop Beaches (northern most county, Pacific NW, USA
HAB Area code(s): US-22
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Additional location information:
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This event was continued from 2003 along the entire coast line, north to south, affecting the following named beaches: Clatsop, Newport-Waldport, ocean spits of Umpqua & Coos Bays and Gold Beach. These are beaches where razor clam habitat is abundant although variable. Bay clams and mussels sampled from coastal bays did not reach toxic levels during this event.
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Bloom event dates (yyyy/mm/dd):
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Start: 2004-01-01, |
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Quarantine levels dates (yyyy/mm/dd):
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Additional date-related information:
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Final date: 01/10/03 for Clatsop Beach or north coast; ongoing for central and south coast beaches
Clatsop Beach on north coast of Oregon began the calendar year of 2004 in open status for all razor clam harvesting; commercial and recreational. Levels of DA were below 5 ppm during the first half of 2004 and in June & July several samples were below detection (<1 ppm). Aug and Sept saw a slight elevation to a range of 6 - 8 ppm. Levels declined again in the fall to < 5 ppm again in Dec 2004.Domoic acid levels in razor clams on the central coast beaches of Newport - Walport (recreational only) were still declining from 2003 highs (287 ppm); levels in Jan- June 2004 ranged from 50-30 ppm. July to mid Aug DA dropped to 20’s but mid Aug saw another elevation to 48 and 33 for razor clams from the N end of Newport beaches. By Oct - Nov of 2004 DA levels on Newport-Waldport beaches returned to mid 20’s.Other species of clams- softshells and butters; mussels and oysters (Pacifics), on the north & central coast showed no detectable levels of domoic acid all year round.During 2004, DA in south coast razor clams continued declining from 2003 highs (100 ppm); levels in Jan- April 2004 ranged in 20’s. In early May an elevation of DA was seen in extreme So coast mussels (7 -10 ppm) then 1 wk later razors jumped to 46 ppm and by June 2 Gold Beach razor clams were at 87 ppm. Mussels dropped to below detection within the next week. The Umpqua and Coos Bay ocean spits were not affected by the apparent DA bloom in May; these areas continued to drop, DA levels were < 20 by Oct permitting an opening of these two spits. By Sept, Gold Beach razor clams again dropped to 20 ppm range for DA but in mid Sept low levels were seen again in mussels (2 ppm); razors went up to 48 by end of Sept; levels still in 40’s by end of year.To summerize, at the end of 2004, two large recreational beaches - Newport-Walport and Gold Beach have been closed to razor clamming, due to DA contamination, since Nov 2002. (At the time of writing this 2004 summary, March 2005, the Newport-Walport beach has opened.)
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