Public health warning: shellfish biotoxin alert for Marlborough Sounds
New Zealand Food Safety is advising the public not to collect or consume shellfish gathered from part of Queen Charlotte Sound due to the possible presence of toxins.
"Routine tests on mussel samples taken from Okiwa Bay (The Grove) have shown levels of diarrhetic shellfish toxins more than 3.5 times the safe limit,” says New Zealand Food Safety specialist adviser Piers Harrison.
"The warning extends from The Grove up to a line from Dieffenbach Point across to West Head in the Marlborough Sounds.
"Please do not gather and eat shellfish from this area because anyone doing so is potentially at risk of getting sick.
"Cooking the shellfish does not remove the toxin, so mussels, oysters, tuatua, pipi, toheroa, cockles, scallops, catseyes, kina (sea urchin) and all other bivalve shellfish from this area should not be eaten."