Catchable

Learn / Lesson 3 of 6

Closed means do not eat: red tide, crab and clams

If a beach is closed, do not dig or pick. You cannot see red tide, and cooking does not make the shellfish safe.

The official source wins. This page explains. The official pages at the bottom decide.

Why

  • Clams, oysters and mussels feed by pulling in sea water. Some tiny plankton in the water make a toxin, and the shellfish keep it in their bodies. People often call this red tide, even when the water is not red.
  • Shellfish with the toxin can look, smell and taste the same as safe ones. Cooking does not make them safe.
  • When a beach is closed for a toxin, Catchable says: Shellfish here can make you sick. Do not eat them.

What to do

  1. Before you go, check DFO's closure page for the beach.

    DFO shellfish contamination closures

  2. Check again on the day you dig.

    Because an area that is open in the morning can close later the same day.

  3. If the beach is closed, take none.

    Because you cannot tell a safe shellfish from an unsafe one by looking.

  4. Before you keep a crab, turn it over and look at the flap on its belly.

    Because a pointed flap, like a lighthouse, is a male. A rounded flap, like an igloo, is a female, and every female Dungeness or red rock crab must go back.

    DFO sport fishing guidelines for crab

  5. Measure a crab in a straight line across the widest part of its shell.

  6. Put back any crab you cannot keep, right away and gently, close to the water.

A crab from above: measure straight across the shell. A crab from below: check the belly flap before you keep a crab. measure across the shell check the belly flap
Measure straight across the shell. Check the belly flap before you keep a crab.

The official words

In short, in our words

DFO closes beaches to shellfish harvesting when shellfish are unsafe to eat. Check the closure for your area every time before you harvest. Crab and clams also have their own catch and size rules.

Last checked against the pages above on . The closures page says it was last modified on , the safety page on , the crab page on and the fishery notices page on . The BC Centre for Disease Control page shows no modified date.

Try it in Catchable

Tap a beach and pick a clam or an oyster. Where shellfish are closed, the card says CLOSED with a daily limit of 0.

Catchable card for subarea 29-3 showing Manila clam with the word CLOSED and a daily limit of 0.

Subarea 29-3

Manila clam No fishing

The card says CLOSED, with a daily limit of 0.

Captured in Catchable on . Map: Esri, USGS, NOAA, and OpenStreetMap contributors.

Open the map

Watch next

Background only. The rule lives at the source.

If the clams are closed, is crab closed too? Not always. DFO says to check the species and the area you want to harvest, and crab and clams have their own rules.