A Vital 'Early Warning System' for the Protection of Human Health: California's Marine Biotoxin Monitoring and Control Program

摘要

Human illness and death from the consumption of toxic shellfish, particularly from mussels, has been a problem for coastal dwellers from ancient times to the present. The awareness of "mussel poisoning" (Kal Ko-o) and the preventative measures practiced by California Native American coastal tribes were described by K..F. Meyer, H. Sommer, and P. Schoeholz in an early issue of the Journal of Preventative Medicine (1928). Documenting local indigenous knowledge of the relationship between ocean bioluminescence and toxic shellfish, primarily among the northern California Pomo, they wrote that sentries were stationed to watch for Kal Ko-o, and: " Luminescence of the waves, which appeared rarely and then only during very hot weather, caused shellfishing to be forbidden for two days; those eating shellfish caught at such times suffered sickness and death".