Tests reveal concentrations of toxins in the shellfish the dogs ate was up to 27 times the safe limit.
The threshold for closure is set at 80 parts per million, but concentration in those areas were found to be as high as 1,300 parts per million.The warning applies to oysters, clams, scallops, mussels and geoduck.
A species commonly referred to as “red tide” has been spotted around B.C. coastal waters over the past month.
No one really knows why algae put so much effort into making poisons. Alexandrium makes saxitoxin, and causes PSP. Another algae called Pseudo-nitzschia produces domoic acid, the source of amnesiac shellfish poisoning.
In Southeast Alaska this summer, researchers have seen extremely high levels of harmful toxins in mussels and clams plucked from beaches.
The Whatcom County Health Department is warning residents that PSP a common biotoxin is now at potentially lethal levels in mussels harvested in Bellingham Bay.
The Department of Health and Social Services reports a person experienced PSP symptoms after eating a clam harvested near Perryville on the Alaska Peninsula.
The overriding theory is that it's a bloom of algae brought on by rising water temperatures.
Three of the walruses had low to moderate levels of saxitoxin, while the fourth one had high levels.
Since early February, the gulf, and beaches and islands surrounding it, have been in the throes of one of the worst blooms of red tide in recent years.
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