CALAIS, Maine - Maine regulators are expanding a shellfish harvesting ban along the state's central and eastern coast that follows a harmful algae bloom.
The bloom resulted in a recall of mussels last week. The state Department of Marine Resources has closed a section of the Penobscot River north of Stockton Springs and a section of Cobscook Bay south of Eastport to harvesting of shellfish.
The Portland Press Herald reports that the state has also expanded a precautionary harvesting ban as far east as Calais, which is on the Canadian border.
Harvesting had been suspended in Frenchman Bay east of Mount Desert Island after mussels tested at elevated levels of domoic acid, a neurotoxin produced by an algae bloom. It can cause sickness, memory loss and brain damage in humans.
Maine Expanding Shellfish Closure In Wake Of Harmful Bloom
Courtesy University of Maine