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• Video – This parasite attacks P.E.I. oysters. What you should know

In areas affected by the disease, 80 to 90 per cent of oyster populations have died off. Initially, only a few areas were impacted, but MSX has since spread widely around the Island.

Bob MacLeod, president of the P.E.I. Shellfish Association, said representatives from his group have participated in more than 100 meetings on the matter since July.

“We have appealed for assistance time and time again, explaining that the longer we wait for action the sooner we may lose our industry,” he told the committee.

“Some type of protocol or guidance should have been initiated much earlier.”

MacLeod said it doesn’t make sense to wait until MSX-resistant oysters emerge to set up oyster hatcheries, as provincial officials have suggested.

“It takes four or five years to get the resistant oyster, but it’s going to take us four or five years to get stuff in place and trained.”

‘We need action’

Now, as oyster harvesters prepare for the spring fishery, uncertainty looms.

“It is now January, and we are three months away from placing our tongs in the water and restarting our livelihood. But I can’t help but wonder if we’ll even have an industry,” MacLeod said.

“We need action to take place, and for that action to start today.”

The effects of the oyster industry on the local economy are “unreal,” he said.

“This is an industry that employs thousands of people on the Island from growers to wild fishermen to plant workers to truck drivers,” he said. “I can’t believe that there’s nothing put in place for this. Just talk.”

During the meeting, MacLeod presented four recommendations to the committee and urged the province to act:

• Provide funding to UPEI for research on protecting Island oysters from parasites like MSX.
• Establish a hatchery and nursery for oyster seed development and to serve as a field collection centre for MSX and other research by the Atlantic Veterinary College.
• Place a moratorium on shellfish products entering P.E.I. waters from the mainland.
• Develop a compensation plan, starting with the spring fishery, to provide relief to harvesters.

Peter Warris, Executive Director of the P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance, echoed MacLeod’s call for more research and development.

Peter Warris, executive director of the P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance, says P.E.I. could emulate the research and techniques used to fight MSX in the United States. (Ken Linton/CBC)

“There are many successful oyster industries in the United States that operate in the presence of MSX and Dermo, very, very successful industries,” he said.

“If they can do it, there is no reason that P.E.I. cannot.”

“Do we want to buy from MSX areas… knowing that there will probably be die off and we have to take it on the chin?”– Jerry Bidgood, P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association

Things are equally dire from the perspective of oyster processors.

The P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association represents nearly all licensed oyster processors on the Island. Plants handled and sold about 77 million oysters in 2023 — nearly all for export.

Processors can’t afford to wait for government action on MSX either, says Jerry Bidgood of the P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association. (Aaron Adetuyi/CBC)

Processors are going to be faced with some tough decisions in the upcoming season, said Jerry Bidgood, the association’s president and general manager of Prince Edward Aqua Farms.

“For us, we have to decide do we want to buy from MSX areas and hold that product knowing that there will probably be die off and we have to take it on the chin?” he said.

If the wild fishery isn’t an option — or if processors decide not to buy wild oysters — then they will have to turn to aquaculture, Bidgood said.

“We have customers that are dependent on us and we’re a year-round supplier,” he said. “We have to replace that product with something else. We cannot go into the season and say… ‘We can’t supply you.'”

A bump in the road? 

O’Leary-Inverness Liberal MLA Robert Henderson said he’s heard the same concerns from processors in his district.

“I’ve talked to some processors that are saying… ‘How many oysters do I buy? Do I go to my bank and borrow, say, a million dollars and find out that 25 per cent of those oysters didn’t make through to market?'” he said.

“That’s a big risk that they’re taking.”

• Facing MSX parasite crisis, P.E.I. oyster industry calls on government ‘to get stuff started’

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

Martin O’Brien, with the P.E.I. Seafood Proccessors Association, agreed with the other industry groups that increased research is the path forward.

“We can get the smart people the funding they need, so we can do some important science work to help us,” O’Brien said.

“I firmly believe that we will look back on this as a bump in the road, and we’ll have a thriving industry providing tasty and nutritious oysters for many generations to come.”

Source: CBC News. Original article available here.