May 24, 2014 — China has lifted a five-month ban on live shellfish from U.S. West Coast waters, a move greeted with relief by North Olympic Peninsula producers.
The Chinese government announced the ban’s end in a letter Friday, officials said.
The ban had particularly affected the Alaska and Washington shellfish industry, including such businesses as Taylor Shellfish Farms, based in Shelton, and members of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, based in Blyn, and the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, west of Port Angeles.
“Obviously, we’re thrilled to finally get a favorable response from China,” said Bill Dewey, a spokesman for Taylor Shellfish Farms, which has a geoduck seed hatchery on Dabob Bay in East Jefferson County.
“It’s gone on longer than we had hoped,” Dewey added.
Doug Morrill, the Lower Elwha tribe’s natural resources director, agreed.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said
“It did not totally shut down our geoduck fishery, but it severely impacted it.”
Ban in December
China imposed the ban in December on the import of clams, oysters, mussels and scallops harvested from Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Northern California.
China detected high levels of inorganic arsenic in geoducks from Puget Sound.
It also found paralytic shellfish poisoning, known as PSP, in geoducks harvested in Alaska.
High levels of inorganic arsenic and PSP have not been found in other areas of the larger region.
PSP is a biotoxin produced by algae that shellfish eat. In humans in high levels, it can lead to severe illness and even death.
Before the ban, China typically accounted for about 90 percent of geoduck exports from Washington state.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Peninsula Daily News