‘Red Tide’ Warnings

I HAVE read with great interest the “gratitude”(?) of the Namibian people when they came across Red Tide at the coast recently.

Is there “red” tide and “red tide”? Recently I returned from Argentina where everywhere we were given loads of leaflets warning us about Red Tide which read exactly as follows: RED TIDE: PARALYTIC POISONING FOR MOLLUSCS “DO NOT PICK THEM UP: common mussels, oysters, large mussels, whelks and great barnacles. It is a toxic disease produced by the ingestion of molluscs (large mussels oysters, scallops, cockles, common mussels, clams and contaminated whelks) These specimens do not demonstrate a different aspect of them of contaminated (alteration of colour, smell, flavour aspect).Boiling or cooking do not eliminate the toxin.The symptoms of the disease begin with sensation of swarming in the lips, tongue, mouth and face, loss of muscular force, respiratory difficulties.THE QUANTITY OF POISON CONTAINED IN AN ALONE MOLLUSC CAN PRODUCE DEATH.AS SOON AS THE LEAST SYMPTOMS APPEARS, YOU MUST GO TO THE MOST NEARBY HOSPITAL” (sic) Pictures of these sea critters were also on the leaflet.In The Namibian of 11.03.08 lots of people seemed “glad” of the loads of “Kreef free-for-all at Swakopmund”!! Perhaps it doesn’t affect crayfish, but I still think we should know more about it and also be as wary of this red tide as they are in another third world country across the Atlantic Ocean.There must of course be much “louder” warnings with symptoms in the newspapers and or leaflets handed out about the red tide, than simply the last few warning lines of today’s article written by Adam Hartman.Genie Albrecht WindhoekIt is a toxic disease produced by the ingestion of molluscs (large mussels oysters, scallops, cockles, common mussels, clams and contaminated whelks) These specimens do not demonstrate a different aspect of them of contaminated (alteration of colour, smell, flavour aspect).Boiling or cooking do not eliminate the toxin.The symptoms of the disease begin with sensation of swarming in the lips, tongue, mouth and face, loss of muscular force, respiratory difficulties.THE QUANTITY OF POISON CONTAINED IN AN ALONE MOLLUSC CAN PRODUCE DEATH.AS SOON AS THE LEAST SYMPTOMS APPEARS, YOU MUST GO TO THE MOST NEARBY HOSPITAL” (sic) Pictures of these sea critters were also on the leaflet.In The Namibian of 11.03.08 lots of people seemed “glad” of the loads of “Kreef free-for-all at Swakopmund”!! Perhaps it doesn’t affect crayfish, but I still think we should know more about it and also be as wary of this red tide as they are in another third world country across the Atlantic Ocean.There must of course be much “louder” warnings with symptoms in the newspapers and or leaflets handed out about the red tide, than simply the last few warning lines of today’s article written by Adam Hartman.Genie Albrecht Windhoek