Oyster industry reps at Summerside conference seek solutions to MSX outbreak

Biologists and other experts in the oyster industry gathered for a conference in Summerside this week are sharing knowledge as the MSX outbreak leaves harvesters and processors on Prince Edward Island trying to navigate a path forward.

MSX or multinucleate sphere X was first detected in P.E.I.'s Bedeque Bay on July 11, but it has since been confirmed in several waterways around the province. 

While the parasite isn't dangerous to humans, it can be deadly to oysters and has the potential to severely cut production wherever it takes hold.

Peter Warris, executive director with the P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance, said Wednesday's agenda focused on getting industry perspectives on how the Island can learn to manage the parasite.

"We really wanted to get the industry together to be able to learn from some growers and fishers and folks in other parts of North America who've gone through the impacts of MSX, so from Nova Scotia and from Maine and from Virginia," Warris said.

Many in P.E.I.'s oyster industry are concerned about what it's going to mean to their livelihood. 

Ryan Carnegie, a professor with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary, said at least the science is better than it was when MSX caused "tremendous damage" in Chesapeake Bay in the late 1950s. 

"In its early years, the adaptation to the disease was slow in the mid-Atlantic, probably because in those early years we didn't have the tools available to deal with it. We weren't really focused on aquaculture production of oysters via hatcheries." 

Carnegie said the oyster industry is now better prepared to deal with the disease. 

"My biggest piece of advice would be to really try to think about how to move toward hatchery production of disease-resistant oyster seed as fast as possible. That's the quickest way out of this MSX disease crisis… developing resistant lines for production in aquaculture contacts."

Cape Breton has also grappled with MSX, in the Bras d'Or area. 

Rod Beresford, a biology professor at Cape Breton University, agreed that relying on hatcheries will be the way of the future for the oyster industry.

"There will probably always be some element of a wild fishery, but given the parasite's going to continue to evolve — this is a parasite that is not kind to oysters, and it takes a long, long time for any kind of natural resistance to infection or resistance to mortality to occur."

Hatcheries will be among the topics of discussion on Thursday when the conference resumes.