For some species of algae, human pollution and farming fertilizers washed into the ocean through streams and rivers seem to be catalysts for blooms. Because algal blooms occur globally, scientists have begun coordinating their investigations on a global scale. Once these conditions are more clearly understood, monitoring and predicting the occurrence, movement and toxicity of harmful algal blooms will become easier - and we may all feel a lot safer eating those delectable filter feeding shellfish. The trouble is, they can't. There is no alternative, which means researchers must rely on an expensive, and often time-consuming process to determine whether shellfish are safe to eat.
Many people also question whether it is ethical to use live animals for testing .
Laboratory technicians time how long it takes the mouse to die, describing its death throes in detailed notes. Barrett estimates that his lab runs 30 to 40 mouse bioassays per day during the peak of the summer season. Every beach that is certified safe for harvesting native shellfish on the Pacific coast, and every commercial aquaculture area must pass a mouse bioassay test before their products can be certified safe to eat. Despite these efforts, people are stricken with paralytic shellfish poisoning every year. Alaska, a state with thousands of miles of shoreline rich in shellfish, certifies only nine commercial shellfish beaches .