Oregon Red Tide Status

Q: Can you swim during a red tide in Oregon?

Oregon Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Program is the agency that answers this, and the signs posted at the access point are put there by the people who looked at that specific water today. Both of those outrank anything on a screen, including this page.

Q: Who monitors harmful algal blooms in Oregon?

Oregon Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Program, ODA Shellfish Safety Hotline, Oregon Health Authority. Oregon Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Program sampling twice a month along the whole coast, with closures posted as soon as biotoxins reach the closure limit rather than on a calendar.. Each of them is linked on this page, with a phone number where one is published.

Q: Does clear water mean there is no bloom in Oregon?

No. The organisms monitored in Oregon do not have to discolour the water to reach the levels an agency acts on, and the toxins involved are invisible, tasteless, and not removed by cooking. Every agency on these pages says some version of the same thing: what the water looks like is not the test, and the published status is.

Q: How often is the Oregon status updated?

Oregon Department of Agriculture states: "Shellfish samples are collected along the length of the Oregon coastline by ODA and ODFW staff twice a month." That is the cadence to plan around. For the situation today, the agency's own page and phone line are the answer.

What Oregon Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Program is reporting today, reproduced as issued, and when blooms normally happen on this coast.

Oregon closures can happen in any month: Oregon Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Program publishes no fixed bloom season

Agency season

None published

Monitored by

Live agency feeds

Oregon bloom status at a glance

Live · agency status, as issued

Today

Oregon Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Program says closures can happen at any time of year and publishes no season window for Oregon, so the bar spans the whole calendar.

None reported

highest category reported

published by the agencies below

agencies that publish status

each linked below

Year round

when closures can happen

closures can happen in any month

organisms monitored

Pseudo-nitzschia, Alexandrium

Oregon is the one state outside Florida where an agency publishes a machine readable status this page can read directly. The Oregon Department of Agriculture maintains a per stretch closure layer and this page reproduces its wording, unaltered. It is still a pointer rather than an authority: ring the hotline before you dig.

Live, as issued

What the agencies are reporting in Oregon right now

Every value below is reproduced from the agency that issued it, exactly as that agency wrote it, with the time attached. On a health subject the official category is the answer, and it can change from one sampling site to the next a few miles down the same coast.

Every status below is the issuing agency’s own, with the agency named and the time attached. Whether a beach is open, whether shellfish can be harvested, and any health question are answered by the agency listed for your state. If you are having trouble breathing, call a doctor.

Oregon Department of Agriculture closure status

ODA publishes a status for each named stretch of the Oregon coast. The words below are ODA’s own. This is a legal harvest status and it changes without warning, so treat what you see here as a pointer to ODA and confirm with ODA on the day you are going.

Reading the Oregon Department of Agriculture closure layer…

Season

When blooms normally happen in Oregon

Oregon Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Program publishes no fixed bloom season for Oregon: a closure here can appear in any month of the year. What the agency does publish is below, in its own words.

“Shellfish samples are collected along the length of the Oregon coastline by ODA and ODFW staff twice a month.”Oregon Department of Agriculture, source

ODA publishes no bloom season for Oregon. What it does publish is that it samples the whole coastline twice a month and closes a stretch as soon as biotoxins reach the closure limit, which means an Oregon closure can appear in any month of the year.

Hundreds of dead fish scattered along the wrack line of a long empty sand beach, running away to the horizon — A harmful algal bloom fish kill on the Gulf coast, photographed by the National Park Service at Padre Island National Seashore in Texas. FWC associates possible fish kills with its low category, more than 10,000 cells per litre, and probable fish kills from its medium category upward. Dead fish on the sand are one of the most reliable signs available to someone standing on a beach. “Marine Harmful Algal Bloom - Fish Kill” — National Park Service — Public domain

Where it concentrates

Which part of the Oregon coast, and what you would notice

What people actually notice

A closure that names one species and not another, which is normal here and is the detail most people miss
The date on the ODA page rather than the water, since domoic acid is invisible, tasteless and not removed by cooking
A razor clam closure on the south coast, which has been the most persistently affected stretch in recent ODA listings
Nothing visible at all, because Oregon biotoxin closures routinely happen when the water looks completely ordinary

Beaches worth checking the status for

Clatsop Beaches

Clatsop County, north coast. The largest recreational razor clam fishery in the state, and the stretch whose ODA status most people are actually checking.

Cannon Beach and Tillamook Head

Clatsop County. Heavily visited rocky intertidal where mussel harvest is common and ODA status applies stretch by stretch.

Newport and Yaquina Bay

Lincoln County. Central coast bay clamming and mussel harvest, in the middle of the ODA sampling run.

Coos Bay and Charleston

Coos County. The largest estuary on the south coast, with bay clam harvest that carries its own closure status.

Gold Beach and the Pistol River coast

Curry County. The far south coast stretch that appeared as closed for razor clams in the ODA layer when this page was built.

A man in chest waders standing knee deep in the surf, filling a sample bottle with seawater — Coastal water sampling, photographed for the US Environmental Protection Agency at Grand Isle State Park in Louisiana. Every category on this page starts as a bottle of water like this one. FWC’s statewide counts come from routine monitoring, event response and partner sampling, which is why coverage is uneven and why an unsampled county is a gap in sampling rather than a statement about its water. “June 4, Collecting water for testing at Grand Isle State Park, La” — U.S. EPA (photo by Eric Vance) — Public domain

Shellfish closures

Oregon shellfish harvest closures

Shellfish harvest closures

Harvest closures are legal orders issued by a state health or agriculture department, and they change without warning. The current closure status is published by the agency below. Check it directly, every time, on the day you are going.

Oregon closures are species specific as well as place specific. A stretch of coast can be closed for razor clams and open for mussels on the same day, which is why the status list on this page carries ODA’s own wording rather than a simplified open or closed flag.

Oregon Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Program · Official closure information · 800-448-2474

A posted algae advisory sign on a Lake Erie beach in Ohio, with an orange warning placard reading that high levels of algal toxins have been detected — A posted advisory on a Lake Erie beach in Ohio, carrying an orange placard reading “high levels of algal toxins have been detected”. Different lake and a different organism from Florida red tide, but the principle is the one that matters everywhere: the sign in front of you was put there by people who looked at that specific water today, and it outranks anything on a screen, including this page. “Algae warning sign (16832101051)” by NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, CC BY-SA 2.0

Who to ask

Who to contact in Oregon

Health questions, whether a specific beach is open, and anything to do with harvesting are answered by these agencies. Each is linked, with a phone number where one is published.

Oregon Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Program

Owns recreational shellfish biotoxin closures for the Oregon coast, publishes the closure map this page reads, and runs the shellfish safety hotline. ODA decides what is closed and what is open, stretch by named stretch.

Sampling twice a month along the whole coast, with closures posted as soon as biotoxins reach the closure limit rather than on a calendar.

Official page · 800-448-2474

ODA Shellfish Safety Hotline

The recorded line ODA publishes for current recreational shellfish closures. Ring it on the day you are going, because a closure can be posted between one tide and the next.

Official page · 800-448-2474

Oregon Health Authority

Handles the freshwater side, issuing recreational use health advisories for cyanobacteria blooms in Oregon lakes and rivers. A different programme from the marine closures on this page, and a status for one says nothing about the other.

Official page

What each organism here does

Pseudo-nitzschia, a group of marine diatoms. Produces domoic acid, which agencies associate with amnesic shellfish poisoning, and the razor clam closures Oregon is best known for.
Alexandrium, the dinoflagellate behind paralytic shellfish poisoning. Produces saxitoxins, which agencies associate with paralytic shellfish poisoning.

Common questions

Oregon red tide FAQ

Is there red tide in Oregon right now?

Is there a red tide season in Oregon?

Oregon Department of Agriculture publishes no fixed season. It states: "Shellfish samples are collected along the length of the Oregon coastline by ODA and ODFW staff twice a month." ODA publishes no bloom season for Oregon. What it does publish is that it samples the whole coastline twice a month and closes a stretch as soon as biotoxins reach the closure limit, which means an Oregon closure can appear in any month of the year. Practically, that means a closure in Oregon can appear in any month of the year and the calendar is not a useful filter here.

Can you swim during a red tide in Oregon?

Who monitors harmful algal blooms in Oregon?

Does clear water mean there is no bloom in Oregon?

Is it safe to eat shellfish from Oregon during a bloom?

Harvest closures are legal orders issued by Oregon Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Program, they change without warning, and getting one wrong is a hospital matter. Check Oregon Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Program directly, on the day, every time. Oregon closures are species specific as well as place specific. A stretch of coast can be closed for razor clams and open for mussels on the same day, which is why the status list on this page carries ODA’s own wording rather than a simplified open or closed flag.

Does a quiet year mean blooms are over in Oregon?

No. Oregon Department of Agriculture's own framing is that these are recurring events rather than one-off ones, and the monitoring programmes behind them run whether or not there is anything to find. A season with little to report is a normal part of the pattern rather than the end of it, which is why this page leads with when blooms normally happen and only then shows what is being reported today.

How often is the Oregon status updated?

What is the difference between red tide and blue-green algae?

Red tide means a marine bloom, in the Gulf of Mexico usually Karenia brevis, which produces brevetoxins and causes respiratory irritation carried in sea spray. Blue-green algae means freshwater cyanobacteria such as Microcystis, which bloom in lakes and slow rivers and produce a different family of toxins. Different organisms, different water, different monitoring programmes, and a status for one says nothing about the other. This page covers shellfish biotoxin closures.

Plan the rest of the trip

More for a Oregon coast day

Oregon beach conditionsRip current and swim risk from the NWS surf zone forecast. A different hazard, a different agency, the same beach.Oregon mosquito forecastCoastal marsh and dune ponds are mosquito habitat, and evening at the water is prime biting time.Red tide across the countryEvery state with a monitored bloom, which agency publishes it, and what they are reporting now.

Red tide and algal blooms in other states

Shellfish closure status is reproduced from the Oregon Department of Agriculture closure layer in ODA's own wording. Season windows are climatological typicals drawn from the agency quotations above, not forecasts. Whether a beach is open and whether shellfish can be harvested are answered by the agencies named above. National picture: red tide and algal bloom status across the country →
Hero image: “2018 Fort De Soto - South Beach” by Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0