Daily Sitka Sentinel

STA to Build Lab to Test for Shellfish Biotoxins

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The Sitka Tribe of Alaska has received $527,000 to develop a marine biotoxin lab in Sitka to improve safety for subsistence shellfish harvesters, STA has announced.

Sitkans dig for clams at Starrigavan in this file photo. (Sentinel Photo)

    The lab would test shellfish for naturally occurring toxins, an ever-present threat to shellfish consumers.
    The lab will allow STA and six other tribal organizations to “assess their communities’ vulnerability for human health risks following the same regulatory standards used by other state and federal agencies,” STA said in a news release.
    Jeff Feldpausch, STA Tribal Resource Protection director, said the lab won’t certify beaches for shellfish harvesting but can “raise a red flag” about dangers.
    “It’s an early warning system to let people know whether we have an algal bloom and toxins are present,” he said. “We can’t certify the beaches but we can raise a red flag.” The lab can then analyze samples or send out samples for further testing for toxins.
    STA Tribal Council Chairman Mike Baines was pleased with the news of the grant that will help in the cooperative venture.
    “I and the entire council are really excited about it,” he said Tuesday. “We’ve been hearing about it since they applied for it a few months ago. We’re excited it’s going to get started.”
    STA has formed the Southeast Alaska Tribal Toxins partnership with Klawock Cooperative Association, Craig Tribal Association, Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, Petersburg Indian Association, the Organized Village of Kasaan, and the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska to work on the project to monitor harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the region.
    STA explained: “SEATT was formed to unify Southeast Alaska tribes in monitoring HAB events that pose a human health risk to the subsistence shellfish harvester, such as paralytic shellfish poisoning. This monitoring effort will provide weekly data on the timing and distribution of HABs, along with measurements of environmental conditions, indicators and potential mechanisms that trigger HAB events.”
    Chris Whitehead, STA natural resources specialist, said forming the partnership is a huge accomplishment.
    “Just to have the partnership is a big deal for the tribes that are involved,” he said. “It hasn’t been done in the past: for seven tribes to form a partnership is enormous, and the potential for 12 of the 17 Southeast tribes to be involved with more funding –  and a common goal – is kind of unheard of. All the tribes share the same feeling.”
    The Environmental Protection Agency’s Indian General Assistance Program is providing $210,000 to the seven tribes in fiscal year 2015. Whitehead said STA plans to apply for two more years of funding after that, and add five more Southeast tribes to the program. STA received an additional $150,000 from the same source to support SEATT with the biannual technical workshops, and to conduct cellular toxin analysis.
    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Biotoxin Programs based in Seattle and Charleston, S.C., have committed to provide training through workshops to help develop the monitoring program.
    STA said it will host a workshop next month for the tribal partners to provide training on sample collection techniques and data entry. NOAA staff will help facilitate the trainings using previously established protocols used by other HAB monitoring groups throughout nation, STA said.
    Once the lab is set up in the STA natural resources office on Katlian Street, STA will conduct toxin analysis on shellfish using the new Receptor Binding Assay technique developed at the NOAA Charleston laboratory. STA said that the RBA was just recently accepted by the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference as a regulatory method to determine toxin levels in shellfish, and it has been adopted into the National Shellfish Sanitation Program.
    Feldpausch said the new testing program will benefit the entire community, not just tribal members, by providing information about biotoxins in shellfish at any particular time.
    “We won’t be saying you can eat – or not eat – shellfish, but we can give them results,” he said. Feldpausch said he believes at some time in the future the lab will be able to post results online – similar to the electric department traffic light – with red, yellow or green advisory for area beaches. “We can have that information, so people can make the best decisions.”