Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Clam Digging Areas Closed

On the Magdalen Islands there are few species that people don't need to have a permit to fish. Clam digging is one of those species. All you need is a digging tool and a bucket to carry the clams ashore. However, as in years past, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans have closed certain areas of the lagoons to clam fishers because the clams are contaminated with bacteria.

The reason for the pollution is not what we normally consider as pollutants. The problem is nature itself. There are certain areas of the lagoon where seal love to bask in the sun during the four seasons. Their waste products are polluting the areas where they tend to congregate.

The areas have probably always been polluted since the seal have always been in those areas. Most like there are no clams in the areas since the seal would eat them, so no human has become ill in the past from consuming these clams. However, the DFO sees fit to assure the public that the clams in these areas are unfit for consumption.

Areas Closed For Mollusks Harvest In the Clam Sector

Fisheries and Oceans Canada for the Quebec region, wishes to warn the population of the Magdalen Islands that the following clamming sectors are closed for the harvest of mollusks because of pollution and this in virtue of the ordinance mentioned thereafter and given in conformity with paragraph 3 (1) of the regulation on the consumption of contaminated fish:

Ordinance No.: QSN-416

House Harbour Lagoon, north-east sector, from the Narrows bridge (Detroit Bridge) for an approximate distance of 500 meters west.

Ordinance No.: QSN-417

Bassin Lagoon Brook, the brook of the Bassin lagoon and less that 150 meters along the water’s edge.

East of Pointe-aux-Loups, The foreshore and the waters of the large marsh, comprising between a point located to the south of the large marsh until a point located three kilometers east of Pointe-aux-Loups.

For more information on this subject you can call the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Grindstone at:
ILES-DE-LA-MADELEINE                                           418-986-2095

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