Paralytic Shellfish Toxins
by Stevens, Sean R.; Gawley, Robert E.
Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) is the most commonly reported cause of paralysis and death from consumption of shellfish. Millions of dollars of damages are incurred upon the fishing industry every summer due to PSP. For this reason scientists have been developing methods of measuring the toxicity of shellfish for the past one hundred years. Currently developing methods of monitoring toxicity include the use of HPLC, HILIC, bioassay, and chemosensors. The Lawrence HPLC method has been chosen for a study of the PSP content of blue mussel samples collected from various sources within a limited time frame. To this end eight blue mussel samples collected from the Puget Sound area, GPS coordinates from 48.2 N, 123.4 W to 47.5 N, 122.5 W between the 21st and 22nd of August, 2006, were analyzed using the Lawrence method in order to det. their toxin content, known as the toxin profile. The eight profiles have been compared and assigned priority based on toxin content. These profiles have been geol. compared to see if there are any definite trends in profile based on water depth, temp., pH, and oxygen content of sampling areas.