Yesterday the Food Standards Agency confirmed this year's first ban on harvesting shellfish in Shetland after two sites on the islands'

West Side were found to be affected by diarrhetic shellfish poisoning

(DSP).

Richard Tait, managing director of North Atlantic Shellfish, of Walls, said that they had been stopped from harvesting mussels at two sites in Vaila Sound, but said the problem was easing and he did not expect it to spread to other sites.

Mr Tait said the company had 10 sites and though they had just started

harvesting the ban would not affect their operation as they could work in other areas until the DSP had passed.

"We are testing all the time, but this is run of the mill. There's a lot of phytoplankton in the water and it just takes a wee bit of time for it to come out of the shellfish," he said.

Tests are carried out on all of Shetland's 60 shellfish sites on a weekly basis and sent for analysis. When discovered harvesting on site is stopped until the DSP has passed through the bivalves, and two clear samples have been taken.

DSP has been common this year around Scotland, but this is the first case so far in Shetland. An FSA spokeswoman said the weekly samples had revealed no other cases in the isles.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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