Shellfish warning still in place

File photo / Supplied

A shellfish health warning remains in place along the Bay of Plenty stretching into the eastern coast of Coromandel.

Shellfish collectors are being warned that all inshore islands of Tairua south, including Whiritoa, Whangamata, Onemana, and east along the Bay of Plenty coastline from Waihi beach, including Tauranga Harbour, to the mouth of the Whakatane River have shellfish with high levels of paralytic shellfish poison.

"The health warning affects all bi-valve shellfish including mussels, pipi, tuatua, cockles, oysters, scallops, catseyes and kina," Thames-Coromandel District Council environmental health officer Allan Turner said.

"Paua, crayfish and crabs can still be taken but as always, the gut should be removed before cooking."

Consuming shellfish affected by the paralytic shellfish toxin could cause numbness and tingling around the mouth, face or extremities, difficulty swallowing or breathing, dizziness, double vision, and in severe cases paralysis and respiratory failure.

- NZPA