Late last summer, several people became ill after eating shellfish harvested from the waters of Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor. Upon further examination, the causative agent was identified as the bacterium, Vibrio parahaemolyticus. In November 1998, the Council recommended to DEC Commissioner Cahill that resources be found to hire an additional staff person needed for a now-required V. parahaemolyticus monitoring program.

Mr. Colvin provided an update on this problem. He noted that the DEC must monitor for V. parahaemolyticus in oysters from shellfish statistical area NS2 (Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor) and perhaps surrounding areas to determine whether they are TDH positive, or virulent. Such monitoring requires staff, lab equipment, and supplies. If the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to require monitoring without providing resources, DEC will have no choice but to cut back on other work, probably in routine certification of shellfish growing waters. He expressed hope that, within DEC’s $1 billion budget, funds could be found to prevent the V. parahaemolyticus monitoring program from being conducted at the expense of routine shellfish growing water certification.

Councilor Knobel pointed out that the DEC has centralized data collection and analysis of coliform bacteria for shellfish growing water certification, although East End towns are willing to assume some of this responsibility. Mr. Colvin explained that the bottleneck is in the lab, not in the collection of samples. The DEC is happy to support development and certification of municipal facilities, as was done for the Town of Hempstead’s microbiology lab, which now does coliform analyses that are accepted and used by the DEC.

Councilor Relyea announced upcoming opportunities to work on this issue: Shellfish Seminar in Milford Connecticut; Northeast Shellfish Sanitation Association meeting in Ocean City New Jersey; and the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Commission meeting in New Orleans.