THE WARNING SIGNS are easy to miss, even if one looks for them.
Judging by the confluence of buoys floating around Port Angeles Harbor, several crabbers have missed the warnings.
Or perhaps they just don’t care.
A public health advisory was issued in May 2007 by the Clallam County Department of Health against consumption of Dungeness and red rock crabs taken from the harbor.
The advisory came after state Department of Ecology biologists found elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins in eight Dungeness crabs collected near the former Rayonier mill site, which is inside the harbor.
Clallam County health officer Dr. Tom Locke continues to recommend against consuming shellfish from the harbor, and the health advisory is still in effect two years later.
Yet there is nothing illegal about ignoring a health advisory. And even Locke says additional testing should be done.
In the meantime, those who have eaten crab taken out of the harbor either aren’t aware of the possible dangers, or could care less.
“People will react to this information differently,” Locke said.
“Our goal is not to bury information if we know about a health risk. Then they make the decisions.”
PCBs and dioxins are stored in fatty tissue — most notably the “crab butter” — and can assimilate in the human body.
Both toxins can lead to a wide array of adverse health effects if ingested regularly over time.
“Everyone’s tolerance of risk is different,” Locke said. “We sort of satisfy our primary goal by getting the information we have out to them.
“We also have another goal, which is to have the best information we can. “That’s why we want additional testing.”
Further testing
Health officials can’t make a definitive statement about the dangers of eating crab from the harbor as things stand right now.
A sample size of eight — all from one point in time — simply isn’t enough.
Locke said he and other county health workers assumed a more thorough follow-up study to be done by the state was in the works.
He checked in on the state’s progress last week — only to find out that wasn’t the case.
Not only had nothing been done, but nothing was planned, either.
It’s something he would like to see rectified.
The issue will be a topic of discussion during this month’s Clallam County Board of Health meeting.
The meeting will be held in the county commissioners’ board room inside the Clallam County Courthouse from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“We have a question hanging out there . . . and that is, ‘Are the crab in the harbor safe to eat or not?” Locke said.
“[The 2007 sample] is certainly big enough to raise it as a concern. In other words, this might be representative of what’s going on.
“Another possibility is that it was a fluke.”
A skeptic could point to tests done earlier this decade, when crab taken out of the harbor proved safe to eat.
Whether or not the results from the 2007 were a “fluke” can only be determined if more tests are done.
Locke said he will request just that in the near future.
Other options
There are other nearby options for recreational crabbers between now and then.
Similar tests were done on samples taken during the same time period from Freshwater Bay just west of Port Angeles and in Dungeness Bay to the east.
The tests showed that those crab were safe to eat.
(Toxin levels for shellfish taken out of Port Angeles Harbor were 200 times higher than in those two areas.)
Locke was not aware of any testing ever being done inside Port Townsend Bay, which also has a waterfront mill, Port Townsend Paper.
Unlike the mill site in Port Angeles, he said, that mill was never declared a hazardous waste site.
That’s what triggered the mandatory testing in Port Angeles.
Given the expenses associated with such studies — Locke has heard estimates of $1,000 per sample — testing is not likely to happen in Port Townsend.
Could there be a problem in Port Townsend, too?
“The waste treatment now of the Port Townsend mill is pretty much state of the art,” Locke said.
“And they are not dealing with as toxic of a production system as Rayonier was using.
“They were ultra-purifying cellulose down [in Port Angeles]. They got the product they wanted, but [the process] also produces a lot of waste.”
Marine Areas 6 (eastern Strait) and 9 (Admiralty Inlet) are open to recreational crabbing Wednesdays through Saturdays only.
Recreational crabbing in Hood Canal opens July 29.
For more information on the Port Angeles advisory, visit www.clallam.net/healthservices/html/hhs_topic.htm.
_____
Matt Schubert is the outdoors and sports columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column appears on Thursdays and Fridays, and on Sundays as news events warrant.
He can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.
