By Spencer Sterritt

Van Isle shellfish growers tackling unanswered questions after eating advisory lifted

Jun 28, 2017 | 5:20 PM

NANAIMO — More than a month after an advisory against eating Vancouver Island shellfish was lifted, oyster farmers are working hard to figure out what happened. 

Darlene Winterburn, executive director of the BC Shellfish Growers Association, confirmed to NanaimoNewsNOW the advisory about norovirus infected oysters was lifted on May 11 and the last confirmed case of sickness tied to oysters was in mid-April.

She said oyster farmers are a resilient group working hard to bounce back from serious setbacks.

“Everybody who was impacted by this is involved in some way shape or form in committees and working groups so that we can learn from this experience, so we can answer some of the many questions which remain unknown and so we can help people move forward through this.”

One specific question she has is why media wasn’t alerted when the much-publicized advisory was lifted. She said the heavy media exposure about the norovirus outbreak certainly didn’t help the industry.

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“It was a tough thing because the Canadian market trickled to a virtual standstill and we had farmers that were impacted across the province.” Winterburn said it’s difficult to precisely find out how much money farmers lost since every farm was affected differently.

Winterburn said oysters were an unfortunate bystander during the whole issue, which the BC Centre of Disease Control had previously said likely started due to sewage being dumped into coastal waters.

At this point, Winterburn said it’s unlikely they’ll ever learn where the sewage was dumped.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit