Australians warned to avoid eating wild seafood after deadly

MELBOURNE, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- The authorities in the Australian state of Tasmania are urging seafood-lovers to avoid eating wild shellfish from the island state's east coast, due to the risk of potentially-fatal paralytic poisoning.

Dr Mark Veitch, Tasmania's acting director of public health, released a statement late on Sunday night warning Tasmanians and tourists to heed the "very real" threat to health, which has come due to an algal bloom in the water.

"Shellfish feed on the algae and (therefore) concentrate the toxin--this makes them dangerous to eat and may cause serious and even fatal illness," the statement said.

"The large scale of this algal bloom and the high levels of toxin in tested shellfish mean the risk of shellfish poisoning from eating shellfish collected from the wild is very real."

Tasmanian seafood is considered by many as the best in the world, with many Australians choosing to make the trip to the southernmost state for sport fishing, mussel and abalone diving, as well as oyster sampling.

The authorities have said it is unsafe to eat wild oysters, mussels, scallops cams and pipis from anywhere along the island's east coast, while hungry Tasmanians have also been warned that cooking the fish will not kill the deadly toxins.

Two types of toxin have been identified by the authorities, one of which causes mild diarrhea while the other causes paralysis which could lead to death.

The latest algal bloom follows a similar one which occurred in 2015 when two people were hospitalized after consuming toxic mussels in October.