Who’s to blame for the neurotoxin that’s poisoning the Pacific?

There’s a fight brewing in the Pacific about toxic algae, climate change, and crabs. It has the commercial crab industry squaring off against Big Oil. So for our latest Verge Science video, I took some motion-sickness meds and hopped on a boat to find out what’s really threatening commercial crabbing and what can be done about it. At the heart of this fight is a neurotoxin called domoic acid, which causes something called amnesic shellfish poisoning. The symptoms can range from stomach problems, confusion, short-term memory loss, seizures, and even death. For three of the past four years, elevated levels of the toxin have forced California’s commercial crab fishery to stay closed for weeks to months past the usual opening day until the... Continue reading…