The Search for Megalops 2024 Report #1 Season Opens

[BlueChip]

The Search for Megalops 2024 Report #1 Season Opens
"You Don't Need to Be a Scientist to Report"
All Blue Crab Observations are Important – March 2024
Thank you, The Blue Crab ForumTM, for supporting these Blue Crab Newsletters Northeast Crabbing Resources
Viewpoint of Tim Visel – no other agency or organization
Tim Visel retired from The Sound School June 30, 2022

•   The 2023 Blue Crab Season – A look to this season
•   Europeans Fight Blue Crab Invasion
•   A Great Visit to Europe's Only Crab Museum Margate, UK
•   Chemistry May Answer Questions About Rusty, Yellow Face and White Belly Crabs
•   Maine Lobster Megalops Counts Collapse: Maine Lobster Fishers Soon to Face Catch Restrictions
•   A Caution About Shallow Water Vibrio – Crabbers and Waders Should Take Precautions Near Marine Vegetation
•   The CT Department of Public Health Issued a Universal Statewide Caution About Vibrio Effects on July 28, 2023
•   A Warm Start to the 2024 Connecticut Blue Crab Season

The 2023 Blue Crab Season: A Summary and Look to Next Season

The 2023 Blue Crab season for many blue crabbers was decidedly "mixed."  We did have a good start in June with modest catches of 4 to 6 crabs per hour, mostly hard shell rusty and yellow face crabs.  We even saw some small blue crabs swarming baits in the Branford area the first week of June, but nowhere near the past megalop sets of 2010 or 2011.  For many crabbers, a four hour tide could produce 15 to 20 adult crabs – a good catch for some, for others the 2010-2012 crab years left a permanent mark as the "Blue Crab Explosion."  In these years of spectacular catches, catches for four lines (hand lines) could catch 50 crabs per hour, sometimes a lot more than that.  That is why it is difficult to assess last season.  Some crabbers who hit the incoming tidal wedge in deep holes caught winter survivors and had modest catches of 8 to 12 crabs per hour.  Crabbers who fished high salinity waters often reported fewer crabs.  Another cool spring held back crabbers until June (the last few winters have had very warm falls), but crabs showed first along the shore next to wintered over habitats.

Crabbing was steadily improving until the heavy rains hit July to August.  It seems that we got the entire summer season of rain in a week.  Crabbers felt all this rain water pushed crabs back towards Long Island Sound, and they were correct.  Crabs can take a brief rain for 24 hours or so before "fresh water poisoning" becomes evident.  In 2004, I observed a massive fresh water kill at the state boat launching ramp (Old Saybrook, CT) in late April.  Tens of thousands of 2-inch blue crabs were just north of the ramp along the shore – all dead.  They had almost made it out of dormancy but days of heavy rain had turned the Connecticut River brown.  The same thing happened this year.  From observations at the Essex Town dock, the water was brown for several days and no crabs seen or observed caught.  The crabbing areas with less freshwater input (runoff) did better and salt pond habitats continued to produce even close to the times of heavy rain events.  These habitats are more influenced by the tidal seawater exchange than a tidal wedge.  In this case, whatever freshwater (being less dense) was at the surface, saltwater hugged the bottom.  Crabs notice this change in salinity (especially in the fall). 

I have crabbed in the fall and noticed this with salinity and temperature.  Some crabbers might recall some trips that crabs would hook up quickly – leave the bottom and then suddenly release or drop off.  Although I prefer hand lines, in this case I switched to the four-door box traps and did well.  Crabbers who used hand lines caught little.  I ended up giving my crabs to a family with small children so they could "catch" some from my bucket.
Fall crabbing improved as the rains lessened and warmer waters spread out the crabs once again.

I did not crab much this past summer.  I was still recovering from "long COVID" (if you know someone who had this, it is a real and serious condition – I lost most short-term memory) and some days just too tired to try.  (Things improved by late fall and finally caught a big bluefish November 14th off Hammonasset Beach to get COVID again at the end of December – round three for me!)  This also cut into the reports I like to write.  Our winter was very mild, a couple of cold waves but not that severe.  The NAO – westerly is still weak and allowed the coastal storm track (Hudson Bay lows) to stay the west, drawing warm moist air along the coast.  The usual "Northeast" storm track did not develop and we got rain instead of much snow.  When the westerly flow is weak, we tend to get warmer moist air with low pressure to the west rather than to the east.

I think it will be an early season – at 47oF crabs begin to stir, at 49oF they need to eat but still move slowly.  No signs of a winter kill as of March 18th.  It should be a good season.  Look for the salt ponds to produce the first blue crabs.
See you at the docks!
Blue Chip – Tim Visel

Europeans Fight Blue Crab Invasion

It was interesting to see pictures of blue crabs being hauled from the beaches of France and Italy this past summer.  They are fighting one of the largest species "invasions" in Europe.  While many crabbers here had modest catches, news media accounts described tons of blue crabs being buried or dumped.  It is important to remember that Italy sells and ships soft-shelled green crabs and has since the fourteenth century (See Search for Megalops #3, posted June 1, 2016, The Blue Crab ForumTM, NE Crabbing Resources).  In fact, in England if you ordered a "crab," you might end up with a huge green crab on your plate.  That is the preferred crab for that region, not the blue crab.  It is thought that the first green crabs came to the Americas not as a megalops but discarding an edible species that survived the voyage.  Venice has had green crab shedding boxes since the 1400s.  The green crab has decimated softshell clams along the coast of Maine – now it seems the blue crab is poised to wipe out clam, oyster and mussel aquaculture in this part of Europe.  I hope that in time the food value of the blue crab will be realized although it is likely to be imported here.  The pictures of trawl nets pulling blue crabs into tubs are hard to forget.  Several media posts can be seen regarding this event.

The International Crab Museum – Margate, UK

I had been exposed to numerous crab species while on Cape Cod.  Here at Woods Hole Mass, the East Coast Oceanographic Study Center developed over a century ago.  First selected for a good harbor and away from factory pollution, the US Fish Commission selected Woods Hole for the first research "wet tables" in 1871.  The US Fish Commission we know as NOAA-NMFS today.  Two other turn-of-the-century research organizations also share the spot.  The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution started in 1930.  The Marine Biological Laboratory frequently known as MBL was founded in 1888 as a not-for-profit for biological research and education – two roles not addressed by the US Fish Commission.  The Fish Commission primarily concerned itself with the commercial fisheries and, when needed, marine and freshwater fish hatcheries.  Both the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and MBL looked overseas for researchers in other oceans.  That is how I saw the Japanese spider crab in the shared library space of WHOI and MBL – a huge wall mount of a spider crab that measured five feet across.  I recall a story attached to this mount – a Japanese marine lab had exchanged research and staff in the early 1930s with Woods Hole – and in the later stage of World War II were forced to leave their lab.  On the board in the lab was a short note – we are like your Woods Hole in America – this is our research, please take care of it.  By chance as the story went, one member of the first wave of US service men came from Cape Cod and knew about Woods Hole and convinced officers to protect the lab, which did happen.  As a gift of thanks, the Japanese spider crab mount was given to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute as it was placed in the library conference room.  I had also seen some of the crab specimens housed in the NOAA lab, perhaps some of them catalogued by Mary Jane Rathbun.  The US Fish Commission catalogued hundreds of crab species.  The Crab Museum at Margate was much different as it combined the species throughout the world with displays sometimes associated with human characteristics.  It was both entertaining and educational.
The Crab Museum brochure states:

"See Crabs Like You've Never Seen Them Before"
"Visit the Crab Museum and find out what crabs have to do with science, history, climate change and philosophy.
Crabs are more than just amazing animals – they're a great way to introduce big ideas to both kids and open-minded adults.
So let crabs teach you about the 1926 General strike, ponder tricky moral questions at the Horseshoe Crab bleeding station, or ask what truth itself has to do with the tale of the Margate Crab.

Or just laugh at the crabs wearing hats!"

I completely agree.

At the museum were assemblages of wall mounts and displayed dioramas that took you into the world of the crabs from early life forms to present day. Fossils, prepared mounts, diagrams and short videos filled the two-story exhibit.  A small room was dedicated to coin and paper currency from all over the world, which featured crabs.  The pie crust crab Cancer pagurus and spider crabs (several species).  And yes, they had a life cycle diagram of the blue crab, but included dozens of crabs from all over the world, including the green crab. 
My visit and my wife Pamela's were arranged by my sister Marnie and her husband Colin of the Island of Sheppey, whom we were visiting.  It was a surprise and I got a certificate as an official guest "crab researcher."  We had great fun and talking "crab."  I also obtained a book titled "Crabs: A Global Natural History" by Peter J. F. Davie, Princeton University Press, 224 pgs. – an excellent reference for any crabber.  The book cover has a beautiful picture of the blue crab.

Chemistry May Answer Questions About Rusty, Yellow Face and White Belly Crabs

Our shallow bay bottoms contain many strains of bacteria that alter soil chemistry.  One of the reasons that bay bottoms don't appear yellow when anaerobic (low or no oxygen) sulfate-reducing bacteria (Desulfovibrio) quickly reduce jarosite to FeS.  FeS (iron sulfide) is black, the color of many bay bottoms.  The brown bottoms usually signal significant oxygen is present.  Soft shell clammers can experience compost chemistry without realizing it, as digging below a surface of brown mud often reveals a deeper black layer often coupled with a sulfur smell.  Different oxygen levels create different compost habitat chemistry.  Iron compounds are known to produce stains caused by bacteria, including bivalve shell stains (See EC #24: Soil Cyanides Linked to Shell Coloration, posted April 23, 2023, The Blue Crab ForumTM Environment and Conservation thread).

One possible link to habitat locations could be the blue crab.  Those that overwinter in oxic brackish habitats appear to have a brown stain (called rusty crabs) while those that winter (inhabit) estuarine waters have a pronounced yellow stain around the mouth (called yellow face) and those that have recently shed or live in saltwater have no stain and are termed "white belly crabs."
We may be able to determine where a crab spends its winter habitat by the stains on its shell.  It's just a concept at this point but chemistry and habitat may have significant roles in shell stains.

Maine Lobster Larval Settlement Index Continues to Fall

The University of Maine American Lobster Settlement Index (ALSI) was started in 1989 and is part of the Wahle Lab.  It measures the post-megalops stage (and helped with the title of this newsletter "The Search for Megalops") that drop to the bottom after spending time floating and drifting in surface waters.  At preselected sites, surveys are made over time to determine the "set," an old shellfish term that broadly describes the presence of future fishery recruits – a "year class" or young of the year "yoy."  This term "set" is frequently used in clam and oyster fisheries but was expanded to measuring stage 4 lobster larvae.  Only a trained researcher can, at times, tell the difference from a blue crab megalops or lobster megalops or for that matter, even the mosquito megalops (all from the same family).  When the Search For Megalops was started here, I hoped to have high school students with "D" nets survey shallow areas 1 to 4 feet deep along the coast.  We delayed this effort in 2015 after reports confirmed increasing presence of Vibrio bacteria in these very hot marine composting areas.  This bacteria (a human pathogen with some species) can stick to marine vegetation and, therefore, presented a cut or scrape hazard in eelgrass or sea lettuce growths (See "Sediment and Vegetation as Reservoirs of Vibrio vulnificus in the Tampa Bay Estuary and Gulf of Mexico," Chase et al., April 2015).   This paper combined with several other warm water Vibrio reports caused a warning about Vibrio to be posted on The Blue Crab ForumTM from me on February 9, 2016 and is reported in the next section.  After the Vibrio caution, we switched to plankton net surveys of surface waters.  But again, the zoeae stage is even more difficult to separate.  So, in talking to a colleague Howard (Mickey) Weiss about his blue crab study (regarding a population of blue crabs in eastern Connecticut) and the difficulty of identifying the various stages of crustacea before they fall to the sea bottom, he then developed in 2017 the "Keys To The Larvae Of Common Decapod Crustaceans (Lobsters, Crabs and Shrimp) In Long Island Sound.  His original key, the "Weiss Key" (Marine Animals of Southern New England and New York), was published in 1995 and became a foundations textbook for aquaculture biology course work at the Bridgeport and New Haven Aquaculture Centers.   

In 2017, Connecticut Sea Grant released CTSG-17-09 "Keys To The Larvae Of Common Decapod Crustaceans (Lobsters, Crabs and Shrimp) In Long Island Sound by Howard M. Weiss, PhD, Project Oceanology, 48 pgs. (it is online).  It has outstanding pictures and diagrams.  We now have the "key" to name these larval stages, and it is a huge valuable addition to marine biology study or just a great student project reference material.  I feel that all crabbers would find this of interest and will shortly recognize how important in larval surveys to have such a key available.

The limitation of using towed plankton nets to survey instead of shallow water surveys is that not everyone has a small boat to tow the net and microscopes to key out the larvae.  We also need to know the relationship between blue crab zoeae presence in the water column to sets of megalopae in shallow bottoms.  Blue crabbers frequently report the presence of a good "set" about two weeks later (blue crabs when small grow very fast) when they "swarm" blue crab baits.  A May or early June set can reach legal size, 5 inches (point to point) by late fall.  This happened in the early summer of 2011.  By July 11, 2011, three sets were identified and made for a tremendous blue crab season.  Blue crabbers can read about the 2011 crab season on Northeast Crabbing – NE Crabbing Resources top panel "2011 Connecticut Blue Crab Reports Compiled" on The Blue Crab ForumTM.

Crabbers should use caution in very hot shallow waters with open cuts or wounds.  Although Vibrio infections are related to warm waters, shallow areas are tremendous heat sink and can foster Vibrio species.  Although many media reports label infections as "flesh eating," Vibrios dissolve proteins and were first noticed by winter flounder fishers here in the early 1980s when winter flounder presented bleeding fins or rotting tail meat.  Years later with continued warming, a type of Vibrio emerged to dissolve the chiton of lobsters.   This is commonly called lobster shell disease or Vibrio beneckea.  Blue crabs seem to tolerate Vibrio better than our northern cold water lobsters and have in general fewer accounts of shell disease.  Vibrio species are associated with thick deposits of organic matter on the bottom.  Shell disease was first noticed by Rhode Island lobster fishers in the 1970s in or near New York City dump (sludge) sites (Jake Dykstra personal communications, T. Visel, 1970s). 

My warning was issued in 2016 and can be found on The Blue Crab ForumTM Northeast Crabbing (New England Crabbing Resources thread), Special Report #1, February 9, 2016.  It is reported in Appendix #2 as a safety precaution for the upcoming blue crab season.

The CT Department of Public Health Issued a Universal Statewide Caution About Vibrio Effects on July 28, 2023
It is found in Appendix #3 Vibrio is a warm to hot summer time event.  As our waters warmed here in New England post-1972, Vibrio has crept north as well.  Warmer waters support faster bacterial growth.  Cooler water slows bacteria and winter time tests usually show much lower bacterial counts.  Research is currently underway to test and report Vibrio bacteria in many states.  The incidence of Vibrio in Connecticut is still very rare but warming waters are a cause for concern.  Be mindful of deep cuts in hot, high organic marine composts.

A Warm Start to the 2024 Connecticut Blue Crab Season

With Long Island Sound temperatures at a 10oF increase over the past decade (Branford minimum 43.9oF) Branford, May 2nd 53.4oF sets the stage for an early blue crab season.  The deep holes along the shore are warmer from earth heat.  My observations over the last 20 years are as follows:

o   47oF - Crabs begin to move from mud
o   52oF - Crabs begin to feed
o   59oF - Growth begins
o   64oF - Growth and feeding are strong
o   Over 65oF - Crabs begin to move from winter areas
o   Over 70oF - Crabs form waves (still not completely understood)
o   Over 75oF - Crabs seek cooler waters, oxygen may become limiting
o   At 75oF-80oF - Crabs come off the bottom at night and this is when pole crabbing increases
o   Over 85oF, a blue crab jubilee may happen.  Crabs will come ashore, leaving low oxygen sulfide-rich water.  This happened in Niantic Bay in 2009 (See article titled "Crabs Pick Land over Niantic" by Jamie Munro, reporter, August 17, 2009).

Most sources agree that 90oF water temperature can kill the blue crab.
Good luck crabbing this season, everyone!
Blue Chip – Tim Visel

Appendix #1
The Day
B4, Thursday, October 19, 2023
Young Lobsters Show Decline Off New England Coasts
Fishermen will see new rules as a result
By Patrick Whittle
Associated Press
www.theday.com

Portland, Maine – The population of young lobsters has declined nearly 40% in some of the most critical fishing waters off New England, officials said Wednesday, triggering new restrictions for the fishermen who harvest the valuable crustaceans.
Officials with the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said surveys have detected a 39% decline in young lobsters in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank areas for 2020-22 compared to 2016-18.  The areas are among the most important lobster fishing grounds in the world.
The initial timeline in the new rules would have brought the stricter rules into play on June 1, 2024, but Commissioner Patrick Keliher of the Maine Department of Marine Resources successfully moved to delay implementation to Jan. 1, 2025.  Keliher said the decline must be taken seriously, but the U.S. lobster fishery would have inequities with Canadian fishermen if they switched to new size requirements too quickly.

Appendix #2

The Sound School Regional Vocational Aquaculture Center
The Search for Megalops Special Report #1
"You do not need to be a scientist to Report"
Important Notice for Blue Crabbers – Estuarine Researchers
Timothy C. Visel
February 1, 2016

Last year's many blue crabbers experienced the harmful impacts of Desulflovibrio bacteria – commonly known as sulfate reducing bacteria or SRB.  Sulfur – sulfate reducing bacteria need organic matter to live but exist in low or no oxygen environments.  At high tide, waters have a fresh change of oxygen and blue crabs can forage over sapropel deposits – deep blue – black organic deposits that forms a marine compost.  This caution is for those crabbers who crab in these areas and may be exposed to these often dangerous bacterial strains.

Several southern states are reporting blue crabbers with serious skin and wound infections – as a result of puncture or cuts while crabbing.  Preliminary research indicates that this was first noticed in southern states in the 1980s (JW Davis et al., 1982, Galveston Bay Texas) and as the heat continued to build north into the middle Atlantic and then by 2012 into New England as illness attributed to gram negative sulfur reducing bacteria increased.  The agent for these cautions was Vibrio vulnificus and V. parahaemolyticus also identified as being found in Blue Crabs.  These are members of a larger and dangerous bacterial group known as the Desulflovibrio series.  The most infamous perhaps of this Desulflovibrio group of the last century is Desulflovibrio cholerae – shorted to cholera.  A Maryland Paper Rodgers et al. appeared in Society of Applied Microbiology Oct. 2014, which comments on these bacteria.

Florida appears to be the hardest hit and issued a caution on them in May 2015 and again in June 2015.  The vector or host culture media (food) for these sulfate reducing bacteria is sapropel – large organic deposits found in hot shallow and often poorly flushed areas – ideal blue crabbing habitats at high tide but in heat and low tide with reduced oxygen conditions the breeding ground for these gram negative bacteria.

The Vibrio first caution was issued in 2012 as some of the seafood diseases – the necrotic flesh wasting strains necrotizing fasciitis (winter flounder fin rot) and shell dissolving bacteria (lobster shell disease strains chinoclastic Vibrio) were showing up in larger amounts in this warm marine compost – sapropel.

The caution now is for crabbers and researchers working in estuarine waters – sulfate reducing bacteria are being found in these warm water deposits and now suspected in dangerous bacterial infections.  Crabbers will recognize sapropel by its blue black color, sticky jelly or greasy consistency and the smell of sulfur.  It is also being associated with the blood fluke in our area termed clammers itch schistosomes and now potential links to the MSX oyster disease.  (An early MSX outbreak here in the 1980s occurred in the lower Hammonasett River near deep sapropel deposits).

When oxygen is low and the temperature goes up sapropel (mostly leaf compost) provides the sugars or glucose (primarily terrestrial leaf material collecting in bays) to grow these sulfate reducing bacteria.  Extreme bacterial action is now suspected of creating sulfide Blue Crab Jubilees in historical events to our south during low energy (poor mixing or flushing) hot weather and storm free periods.

Gloves and aprons are suggested when working with sapropel – treat any puncture or cuts with serious and rapid anti-bacterial agents.  The problem with these gram negative bacteria is that they are often antibiotic resistant – as discovered in 1976 (Joel O'Connor, NOAA) in all of the New York dumpsites that obtained animal fats and grease.

I have attached a quick reference guide for sapropel – it is a very destructive habitat type that needs more review – my view.

Notes on Sapropel – (Black Mayonnaise)
Timothy C. Visel, The Sound School Regional Vocational Aquaculture Center
February 2016 - Tim Visel

•   Sapropel is called many names but most New England fishers may recognize the term Black Mayonnaise.  It collects in poorly flushed coves and bays or behind tidal culverts, road and railroad crossing that restrict energy or tidal flows.  It collects in low energy, shallow waters frequently Harbor bottoms and starting under eelgrass meadows (See appendix LIS Seminar, May 10, 1985).

•   Sapropel is an organic marine compost (once harvested for an organic fertilizer and soil nourishment here a century ago) and is the food or culture medium for sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB). These bacterial thrive in heat and low oxygen conditions as they use sulfate as an oxygen source which is not limiting in coastal estuaries.  In high heat and low dissolved oxygen condition they can dominate the bottom bacterial spectrum.

•   A rebuilt forest canopy – once below 30% coverage in the 1880s has rebuilt to 78% coverage today (Connecticut).  This has caused a tremendous increase in leaf material entering our coves and bays (New England) oak leaves are especially problematic they are acidic – contain a natural tannin flocculant and dissolve slowly – into a brown "oak leaf tea" after heavy rains.  Research in Norway and Europe has indicated that such organic deposits may contain a tannin signature that can be used to fractionate terrestrial organic source material.

•   Oak leaves are both acidic and high in wax esters a substance that protects the oak leaf in times of heat and drought.  On hot dry August days oak leaves will glimmer or shine from this wax.  It is the wax or leaf parrafins that gives sapropel its greasy sticky consistency.  When the wax seals off oxygen to the organic layers below, sapropel builds and becomes sulfide rich (hydrogen sulfide or rotten eggs smell).   

•   Sapropel in high heat can purge have levels of ammonia and is now being linked to jumpstarting those harmful algal blooms (HABs) who can utilize warm water ammonia.  Research from the Florida Indian River lagoon study indicates that such Black Mayonnaise deposits can account for 50% or more of ambient nitrogen ammonia.  In poorly flushed coves ammonia residence time is greatly increased allowing levels to bloom the brown algal species that require it.

•   Sulfate reducing gram negative bacteria can include members of the Desulfovibrio bacteria group deadly to some fish and shellfish species.  Winter flounder fit rot (necrotic lesion or fasciitis and shell blistering) lobster shell bacteria disease agents.  The desulfovibrio bacteria can cause human infection and illness.

•   Sapropel many at times of habitat succession may have a vegetation crust, under eelgrass at first until the sulfides build up to high levels it rots the roots away but can then sustain sea lettuce Ulva lactuca that feeds on the abundant ammonia from this marine compost.  Sapropel deposits at low tide may appear green and support dense sea lettuce moncultures.

•   Sapropel by way of its biochemical living bacterial processes complex heavy metals including aluminum and mercury.  The older the deposit the greater metal chelation occurs. sapropel naturally concentrates heavy metals and in Europe it is often used to remove heavy metals from spills (contamination on land).  In 1973 the EPA investigated sulfate/sulfide treatments to remove heavy metals from mine drainage.  Sulfate is not limiting in coastal waters.

•   There appears to be a reluctance for federal agencies to review sapropel habitats.  Instead of the European description and research identity (Saprobien system) we have in the United States a numerous names and conflicting terms that largely exclude the "living compost" description.  They include black mumie, black facies, black mayonnaise, fines, unsuitable fines, unconsolidated fines, turbid floc, silt, oatmeal, ooze, sulfide ooze, guytta, marine snow, benthic flux, sulfide flux, acidic sulfate soil (US Army Corps of Engineers uses this term) sediment and "unknown."  Sapropel is a marine compost of value in Europe and termed sapropel.  We should adopt this universal term – my view.

•   Oceanographers have studied the impacts of bacterial sulfur reduction since the 1930s (see appendix below).

•   The EPA in 1973 issued circular 670/2-73-080 September (Removal of Heavy Metals from Mine Drainage by precipitation) Office of Research and Development US EPA – Environmental Protecting Technology Services (see appendix below).

Appendix #3

Press Releases
07/28/2023
DPH warns residents about severe Vibrio infections caused by consumption of raw shellfish or exposure to salt or brackish water
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 28, 2023
CONTACT:    Chris Boyle—Director of Communications

HARTFORD, Conn.— The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) is warning residents about the potential dangers of consuming raw shellfish and exposure to salt or brackish water along Long Island Sound, due to severe Vibrio vulnificus infections.

Since July 1, three cases of V. vulnificus infections have been reported to DPH. The three patients are between 60-80 years of age. All three patients were hospitalized and one died.  One patient reported consuming raw oysters from an out-of-state establishment. Two patients reported exposure to salt or brackish water in Long Island Sound. Both patients had pre-existing open cuts or wounds or sustained new wounds during these activities which likely led to the infections.

"The identification of these severe cases, including one fatality, due to V. vulnificus is concerning," said DPH Commissioner Manisha Juthani, MD. "People should consider the potential risk of consuming raw oysters and exposure to salt or brackish water and take appropriate precautions. Particularly during the hottest months of the summer, bacteria are more likely to overgrow and contaminate raw shellfish. Given our current heat wave, this may be a time to exercise particular caution in what you consume."


V. vulnificus infection is an extremely rare illness. Five cases were reported in 2020 in Connecticut, and none in 2021 and 2022. V. vulnificus infections from oysters can result in severe illness, including bloodstream infections.  V. vulnificus can also cause wound infections when open wounds are exposed to warm salt or brackish water (mix of salt and fresh water).  People with a V. vulnificus infection can get seriously ill and need intensive care or limb amputation. About one in five people with this type of infection die. People at greatest risk for illness from V. vulnificus are those with weakened immune systems and the elderly.

[widdjitt]

Nice read, Tim - always good to read your posts.