Officials and oyster industry return from Virginia with takeaways to navigate MSX

Provincial officials and oyster industry leaders returned from a trip to the U.S. state of Virginia last month with new insights on tackling the oyster parasite MSX.

MSX, or multinuclear sphere X, was first detected in Prince Edward Island waters in July 2024. While the parasite is harmless to humans, it is deadly to oysters. 

Only a few areas were initially affected, but MSX has since been spreading around the province's coastlines.

Kim Gill, the acting director of aquaculture with the P.E.I. Department of Fisheries, Tourism, Sport and Culture, said a group of roughly 20 oyster industry and government officials travelled to Virginia to meet with industry members and researchers.

Virginia harvesters have been dealing with MSX for decades, so there is a lot of expertise in the region, Gill said. 

"I think it was a really good opportunity for everybody to learn together what they're doing in the States and bring our perspective down to present to them on where we need help, where we could collaborate, little areas where we could learn from what they've done over the last 50-plus years," she said.

P.E.I.-Virginia relationship to continue

While she thinks everyone who went to Virginia might have a different takeaway, Gill herself was impressed by the communication among various groups working with MSX, such as industry members, researchers and state officials.

"They're very in tune with each other," Gill said.

"They communicate constantly, they problem-solve together, and they use their resources — which didn't seem, you know, extreme — but they use them very effectively. And because of that, their industry is able to kind of keep rolling along with producing oysters."

Gill said she is still "blown away" by how transparent and collaborative the team in Virginia was with the Island delegation. 

"They threw their doors open," she said. "They answered every question short of, you know, giving us the secret recipe to the secret sauce. We got everything. They answered every question."

Gill said the province is working to develop and foster relationships with other state officials and researchers, including those at the University of North Carolina.

She said the relationship between P.E.I. and Virginia will continue, and hopes some researchers from the state will come to the Island this summer during the peak harvesting period.

Task force said to be working well

In January, Gill told a legislative standing committee that the province has set up an MSX task force in conjunction with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Gill said the task force's goal is to share information among both levels of government and industry members, including representatives from oyster fishers, aquaculture growers and the P.E.I. Seafood Association and Oyster Processors Association.

She said the task force meets weekly for "very, very good, honest discussions" and has worked well so far.

"We're all very concerned about what potentially could happen with industry. So we've been very lockstep, I would say, in our approaches to mitigating any effects… finding where there [are] impact points and addressing them," Gill said.