Too soon to open oyster hatcheries to battle MSX, says P.E.I. fisheries minister

P.E.I. is balancing a lot of complex issues as it determines how to deal with the MSX parasite threatening the oyster fishery, says provincial Fisheries Minister Cory Deagle.

Multinuclear sphere X was first detected in Island waters in July. While the parasite is harmless to humans, it is deadly to oysters. In other areas struck by the disease, 80 to 90 per cent of oyster populations died off.

The first detections included just a few areas, but the Canadian Food Inspection Agency now believes MSX is widespread around the Island.

"It was certainly disappointing," Deagle told Island Morning host Laura Chapin of the recent evaluation, "but I guess to be honest it was probably expected."

The Fisheries Department has been busy consulting with the P.E.I. Shellfish Association, the P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance and local shellfish processors, he said. In addition, it has been seeking counsel from researchers and experts from areas where MSX is already endemic.

There are short, intermediate and long-term considerations, said Deagle. One thing that's clear is the issue is not going away.

"Right now our main concern is sampling and surveillance," he said.

Last week, P.E.I. Shellfish Association president Bob MacLeod told CBC News the province is moving too slowly.

MacLeod wants to see government moving on a strategy that has worked in other areas: Breeding MSX-resistant oysters.

It was a strategy that was discovered in the northeastern U.S. almost by accident.

MSX came to Chesapeake Bay in 1959, and within a few years the oyster industry there was finished. So many of the shellfish had been killed by the parasite that the fishery was no longer viable. The industry turned to harvesting other species, such as clams.

But a decade later, the oyster population had rebounded. While close to 90 per cent of the population had been wiped out, those that survived passed on a genetic resistance to the parasite.

When MSX was found off the coast of Maine in 2002, the industry there lifted seed from Chesapeake Bay and began an aggressive breeding program in hatcheries. Quick action prevented a total collapse of the fishery. 

Quick action is what MacLeod wants here. Ideally, he said, the province would already be breaking ground on a half-dozen hatcheries.