The toxic algal blooms are affecting shellfish beds in Maine, from Cutler to the Canadian border.

As red tide hits the Maine coast, state health officials are urging people to make sure they consume seafood safely. The toxic algal blooms have led to closures of shellfish beds in Maine, from Cutler to the Canadian border. The toxin can contaminate shellfish and sicken people who eat them, sometimes fatally, officials say.

Maine Center for Disease Control officials say shellfish purchased from a licensed dealer is safe to eat because their operations undergo rigorous screening and auditing. Those harvesting shellfish for their own personal use should make sure the shellfish beds are not closed due to red tide. Information on which beds are closed can be found online at http://www.maine.gov/dmr/rm/public_health/closures/pspclosures.htm

Officials say people should never eat clams or mussels floating in ocean waters because they're likely to be contaminated with much more of the red tide toxin than those in beds. And when eating lobster, they say, don't eat the tomalley, the green material in the body cavity which serves as the lobster's liver. The lobster meat is safe to eat.

State health officials say three incidents of so-called paralytic shellfish poisoning have occurred in Downeast Maine over the past three years, sickening a total of eight people, none of them fatally. In all three cases, people had harvested mussels for personal use, in one case from a closed area.