Sewage Taints Canadian Oysters. Then Americans Eat Them

Mark Kapczynski had been looking forward to it for weeks. 

He had VIP tickets for him and his wife to attend an upscale seafood festival in Los Angeles last December, where they would feast on the food he grew up eating as a kid in Boston.

Surrounded by shellfish presented raw on ice by some of the city’s best chefs, Kapczynski said he chose to sample a few “Fanny Bay” oysters harvested from the southern British Columbia coastline.

“After three or four hours, I wished I was dead, it hurt so much,” said Kapczynski, who was hit with severe abdominal pain, vomiting every 30 minutes for five hours. “It was the most painful thing I’ve ever felt.” 

Canada is a major international supplier of oysters to the United States. Yet over the past six years, more than a third of all federal recalls triggered by Canadian oysters on both sides of the border trace back to one place: Baynes Sound, a picturesque harvesting area on Vancouver Island with a long history of sewage-contaminated waters and complaints of government inaction.

The common link behind all of those recalls, outbreaks and illnesses is clear, according to government reports, shellfish farmers and experts: human waste flowing into the waters of Baynes Sound from nearby homes and passing boats.  

Since 2019, 14 of the 39 health recalls of Canadian oysters issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration come from this stretch of coastline where more than 50 individuals and companies are licensed to farm oysters.

So far this year, all eight of the Canadian oyster shipments refused at the U.S. border have been from Baynes Sound. And in March, FDA officials issued public import warnings about oysters from two Baynes Sound suppliers. 

“This isn’t something farmers are doing to their oysters. This is something happening to the waters we grow them in,” said Nico Prins, executive director of the B.C. Shellfish Growers Association. “The underlying causes point to long-standing government failures, jurisdictional confusion and a lack of meaningful partnership with industry.”

Although a variety of pathogens have been identified in oyster recalls, the most endemic is norovirus, which is fueled by raw sewage, typically from ships, recreational boats or homes along a shoreline. 

“We have these recalls year after year, but we don’t do a lot of work to prevent the recalls,” says Natalie Prystajecky, an environmental microbiologist at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC). “It’s human waste, absolutely. Norovirus is only transmitted from human to human. So if you have norovirus, you have been exposed to human fecal material.”

Journalists for Inside Climate News, Canada’s Investigative Journalism Bureau and the NYCity News Service analyzed six years worth of shellfish recall and outbreak data across Canada and the United States and interviewed more than two dozen oyster farmers, consumers, aquaculture researchers and government officials to understand how human waste sitting on ocean floors is being transported vast distances and into the mouths of unsuspecting oyster consumers. 

That’s what likely happened to many oyster lovers in Los Angeles and well beyond in December 2024, when the oyster beds of Baynes Sound were closed by federal authorities just two days before the Canadian federal government issued a massive recall notice warning of “possible norovirus contamination.”

By that point, the suspected tainted mollusks were fanning out across the continent to restaurants, hotels, seafood festivals and grocery stores.

The U.S. Imports Many Oysters

Most oysters on the market—both raw and cooked—are safe.

Canadian oysters are a crucial part of the oysters served in the United States. 

While the United States grows vast amounts of oysters along its coastal states, even more are imported from abroad, with Canada leading the way.

U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data shows more than 21.2 million pounds of oysters were harvested domestically in 2023, the most recent year with available figures. Some of those are exported, including to Canada.

But even more oysters come into the United States from other countries. 

Canada is the leading source of imports, followed by South Korea and Mexico, according to the NOAA trade data. They combined to ship in 25.1 million pounds of oysters in 2023, with Canada accounting for almost half of those imports. Other imports of raw, cooked and processed oysters come from countries including China, New Zealand, Vietnam and Spain. 

To be sure, U.S. federal and state officials have recalled tainted oysters and issued warnings for domestically harvested oysters and those from other countries, including South Korea and Mexico.

For Canada, oyster farming is a big business that is growing. Canada’s oyster market hit $48.4 million from 33 million pounds in 2022, the last year for which data is available. A decade earlier it was about 22 million pounds. The United States is by far its leading customer, accounting for almost 90 percent of all exported Canadian oysters.

Within Canada, British Columbia leads the country in oyster production with a $18.4 million harvest in 2023.

While the gnarly shellfish have become a high-demand delicacy summoning a precious price from sophisticated foodies, they have an unfortunate characteristic: oysters ingest organisms such as bacteria, viruses and other toxins in the ocean water where they are grown. That includes fecal matter. 

While all shellfish filter their food and pass it along to those who consume them, health risks are mitigated with mussels, clams and other shellfish because they are typically cooked. Not so with oysters, which are most often served raw on ice.  

It is an elusive problem to address.

Norovirus is undetectable to those harvesting or serving the oysters. There is no smell. There is no taste. It is highly contagious. 

“Noro is a real challenge. It’s the second-leading cause of food-borne illness globally,” said Bob Rheault, a Rhode Island-based former oyster farmer and executive director of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association in the United States.

“It takes 10 viral particles to get you sick and every gram of vomit and feces has seven billion particles in it.”

Tracing a norovirus spread back to its source is also tricky. 

By the time the bivalve gets to the grocery store or the restaurant where it will be shucked and consumed, multiple sets of hands have harvested, iced, packed, shipped and distributed them. 

The scope of the impact on oyster consumers is unknowable.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. and Canada get sick every year from norovirus. But a lack of reporting and monitoring make it impossible to know how many of those cases were caused by tainted oysters. 

In part, that is because most people do not provide a stool sample needed to prove the connection.

“Very few cases will actually have lab confirmation,” said Prystajecky, who calls official illness numbers a “gross underestimation.” 

One factor complicating traceability is the prevalence of shellfish medley plates served at restaurants. 

Restaurants offering diners a variety of shellfish from multiple sources on the same plate, coupled with poor record keeping, makes it extremely difficult to identify the source of a potential contamination in the event of a reported illness.

Kapczynski’s contact with suspected tainted oysters happened at last year’s L.A. Times 101 Best Restaurants, an annual event that features some of the most prestigious and elegant restaurants in Los Angeles. 

He said he consumed about a dozen pieces of shellfish that night, including nine oysters and a few clams.

Nearly 90 people were infected with norovirus at the Los Angeles seafood event that Kapczynski attended, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. 

Sixteen sought medical care from the incident and two were hospitalized, the department said. 

But Kapczynski suspects the real number may be much higher. After the incident, he posted on social media asking if anyone who had attended the L.A. Times event had become ill. He says he quickly connected with others who experienced the same symptoms. 

The outbreak triggered recalls by oyster distributors across California, health advisories issued by the state’s public health department and warnings from the FDA and Canadian government about consuming oysters from Baynes Sound due to suspected norovirus contamination. 

Regulatory Failures, Contamination Increase Risks

The Baynes Sound harvest areas known formally in government documents as 14-8 and 14-15—near Denman Island on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island—are less than 125 miles from Vancouver.

For generations, farmers in Baynes Sound have fanned out along the shellfish-rich coastline in boats, pulling up baskets, trays or cages containing oysters from the ocean floor. In shallow water, farmers pluck oysters by hand and place them into mesh bags.

Once collected, the oysters move to a federally inspected processing facility where they are graded and packed before being shipped to markets across Canada, the U.S. and beyond.

Timothy Green is an expert in aquaculture at Vancouver Island University who studies shellfish production from an office overlooking the harvesting grounds of 14-8. 

He said human sewage contamination from failing septic systems in Baynes Sound is exacerbated by government buck-passing from one agency to another, repeatedly ending with inaction. 

“It seems to be that the powers that be are absolutely powerless to stop this from happening,” he said. “For some reason in North America, we just don’t want to take care of our wastewater.” 

Oversight of Canada’s oyster industry is labyrinthine, spanning a range of agencies and departments at all three levels of government. 

Provincial and municipal governments are responsible for sewage infrastructure, treatment systems and land-use planning.

In a written statement to reporters, B.C.’s Ministry of Health said it is difficult to monitor the source of the fecal contamination behind norovirus outbreaks. 

“Current surveillance methods can only detect whether there is fecal bacteria in the water. Without knowing the source of contamination (for example human vs. animal) it is difficult to set up a mechanism to prevent the contamination from happening again.”

Federally, four different agencies have various responsibilities for oyster monitoring.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency verifies shellfish entering the market are safe and recommends closing high-risk harvest sites. Fisheries and Oceans Canada issues the closures. Meanwhile, Transport Canada regulates sewage discharges from vessels, while Environment and Climate Change Canada sets and enforces national standards for wastewater.

“We have an ongoing problem with human waste getting into the ocean and contaminating our products and we’re trying very hard to identify where that’s coming from and to try and get someone to fix it.”

— Alex Munro, Fanny Bay Oysters

It’s a crush of regulatory oversight. But it is failing consumers and triggering devastating impacts on harvesters, say oyster farmers in Baynes Sound.

B.C. Shellfish Growers executive director Prins said industry revenues are down 35 percent because of norovirus-related closures in Baynes Sound. 

“And this year is going to be way, way worse. I wouldn’t be surprised if companies and the industry will be down 50 percent on sales.”

Alex Munro, director of farming and processing for Fanny Bay Oysters, said his company suffered a steep drop in production from a three-month closure of the oyster beds following the December 2024 outbreak. 

“Then this year we got slammed again for four or five months,” said the 30-year oyster producing veteran. “We have an ongoing problem with human waste getting into the ocean and contaminating our products and we’re trying very hard to identify where that’s coming from and to try and get someone to fix it.”

In addition to the December 2024 recall, the company was also named in oyster recalls in October 2023 and March 2022.

Stellar Bay Shellfish in Baynes Sound was also shut down for six months this year and nearly that long in the previous two years, said Sean Reid, a third-generation oyster farmer and president of the company.

The production losses totalled as much as $3 million.

“We do have rules about the functioning of your septic fields and systems,” he said. “How would you not have enforcement and regulation on something as important as that for the environment?”

Beyond the economic hit, blaring international headlines detailing oyster-related outbreaks and illnesses can have lasting reputational damage on the B.C. shellfish industry.

“Just the press we’ve had the last three years has been so damaging to the whole area that I have a lot of distributors that are like, ‘I have a lot of customers that won’t touch anything from Baynes Sound now,’” said Reid. “We were in a lot of the larger hotel chain-type restaurants … and they, as a corporation, said, ‘We don’t want product from there. There’s too much liability associated with it.’” 

Baynes Sound: A History of Troubles

Government reports and studies dating back more than two decades show repeated calls for more stringent regulation and oversight of the oyster harvesting waters of Baynes Sound.  

In December 2002, a quarter of the waters in Baynes Sound were closed for harvesting over concerns of sewage discharge from boats, according to documents at the time from the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management Coast & Marine Planning Branch in British Columbia. 

“A significant portion of Baynes Sound waters have been subjected to bacterial contamination from a variety of upland sources such as sewage and agricultural runoff,” the report concluded.

The report called for action including inspections of aquaculture in Baynes Sound, letters sent to “non-compliant operators as an initial step to bringing them back into compliance” and an enforceable code of practice for shellfish aquaculture.”

Between November 2016 and May 2017, more than 400 Canadians were sickened after eating raw oysters from 12 B.C. shellfish farms that tested positive for contamination of norovirus, E. coli and other bacteria, according to a report by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. Half of those farms were in Baynes Sound.

That prolonged outbreak closed 12 shellfish farms linked to norovirus illnesses, triggering economic losses of more than $9 million, according to a provincial report that called for more action to reduce the risks.

“How did norovirus contaminate so many different shellfish farms? Human sewage contamination of the marine environment,”  the report concludes. “What occurred in the 2016-17 season will occur again—the only question is when.”

The following year, at least 176 Canadians and 100 Americans were confirmed to have been infected with the norovirus linked to B.C. oysters that made their way to eight states and across Canada. Oysters from Baynes Sound were responsible for “the majority of illnesses,” concluded B.C.’s Centre for Disease Control in a later report on the incident.

“Commercial fishing vessels are the most plausible source of human sewage and norovirus contamination,” the report concluded.

One commercial fishing vessel operating in the Baynes Sound area reported that discharging sewage into the ocean was “common practice.”

In February 2022, the B.C. Shellfish Growers Association sent strongly worded letters to officials and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Environment and Climate Change Canada asking for meetings to discuss the “devastating effect” of norovirus outbreaks linked to oysters cultured in the Baynes Sound.

None agreed to meet, according to the association.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a written statement that it has maintained “regular engagement with the B.C. Shellfish Growers Association” and that norovirus contamination of shellfish is a “shared responsibility that involves all levels of government, as well as other stakeholders.”

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) said in a written statement that it has been engaged in mitigation discussions around human waste and norovirus in Baynes Sound since 2022 when it convened a working group including agencies involved in the management of shellfish safety, waste regulation, public health, pollution control and enforcement.

The statement does not reference any specific outcomes from the working group discussions.

“DFO remains open to continued dialogue with industry on possible collaborative approaches to address long-standing pollution challenges,” the statement said. 

Environment and Climate Change Canada did not respond to questions from reporters.

Three months after the B.C. Shellfish Growers Association reached out to the federal ministries, Canadian and American authorities issued warnings about raw oysters from 14-8 and 14-15 following a large outbreak affecting more than 600 people in the two countries—including at least 192 norovirus illnesses reported in 13 states.

In February 2023, the association’s Prins sent another letter, this time to the provincial Ministry of Health, again asking for a meeting.

“Our industry and farmers can no longer afford to have our businesses eroded or sit idle while we are the victims of a shameful practice and a failure of government,” the letter said. 

No meeting ever took place, he said.

That same month, February 2023, and again in December of that year, the FDA issued warnings after oysters from 14-8 suspected of carrying norovirus and Campylobacter jejuni—a bacteria commonly associated with animal feces that causes food poisoning—reached consumers across the U.S.

Prins and his members have been hesitant to speak publicly about the concerns with contaminated waters where they earn their livelihood for fear of adding to the area’s reputational damage.

But their frustrations have reached a boiling point, he said. 

“We are taking action to protect our customers and safeguard our farms. But we are limited. We don’t have the authority, the tools or the resources to upgrade wastewater infrastructure, enforce regulation or monitor all the potential contributors to contamination. That is the job of government.”

“It All Ends Up in the Oysters”

B.C.’s oyster fields aren’t the only ocean waters in Canada compromised by suspected sewage-tainted oyster beds.

“Same issues here,” said Paul Budreski, who has been farming oysters along Nova Scotia’s north shore for decades. “We have poorly treated sewage systems. … There has been very little attention from the federal and provincial governments.”

On a recent summer morning Budreski’s son—dressed in a black wetsuit—was sorting oysters just pulled from harvesting grounds in Chance Harbour, Nova Scotia, as his father looked on. They typically gather their catch by diving or snorkelling in shallow waters. 

The uniform-sized oysters are separated and sent to local restaurants. The rest go to loyal customers who care more about taste than aesthetics.

Budreski holds two oyster leases. One of them is not far from an area that he said has been contaminated for decades.

He believes the cause is obvious: failing septic systems and sewage runoff from a cluster of aging cottages nearby.

Federal data obtained by the reporting team shows 122 active shellfish farming closures since 2019 in the Northumberland Strait, an oyster-rich stretch of coastline along the north shore of Nova Scotia where Budreski harvests.

The vast majority of those—114—were attributed to “water quality or sanitary pollution source.”

In September of last year, at least 550 people got sick from norovirus at the Prince Edward Island International Shellfish Festival, according to the province’s chief health officer. 

Canada has “very strict” guidelines on where it allows shellfish to be harvested, said Sarah Stewart-Clark, an associate professor of shellfish aquaculture at Dalhousie University in Truro, Nova Scotia. 

“I say we’re one of the best in the world at that part. That’s not saying that we’re the best in the world in ensuring all of our sewage is treated before it goes out into the ocean.”

She said Canada could grow more food if the problem of untreated sewage was addressed.

“There’s some areas where the municipality has not had any treatment of sewage,” she said. “In other cities, they have developed sewage treatment facilities, but they haven’t separated their rainwater collection from that sewage treatment.”

That lack of separation causes trouble during heavy rainfall, when treatment plants can become overwhelmed by the combined flow of sewage and rainwater, said Stewart-Clark.

“There are immediate closures whenever that happens to ensure that consumers are safe.”

The risk of sewer overflows and runoff from extreme rain is increasing as water temperatures rise. Estuaries, where many oysters are cultivated, are in the direct line of these runoffs that can carry bacteria and toxic substances into rivers and eventually oceans, where they can get into the oysters. 

“They’re going to pick up some of these pathogens that are being flushed down from the pastures, from the impermeable surfaces in the urban environment, and that’s how they can get into the food chain,” said Jan Semenza, an environmental epidemiologist and associate at the Department of Sustainable Health at Umeå University in Sweden and Heidelberg Institute of Global Health in Germany.

“If we don’t clean up our environment, it all ends up in the oysters.” 

Nova Scotian oyster fisherman Budreski said it is time for governments to act.

“Who doesn’t want clean water? We have a problem here. … Maybe we should do something about it.” 

The Washington State Model

While federal agencies in both Canada and the U.S. oversee oyster production, there remains a patchwork of state and provincial rules. 

In the United States, state rules vary. Georgia, for instance, restricts when commercial oyster farmers can harvest in deeper waters during warmer summer months. The concerns are that pathogens like vibrio are more likely to be in oysters when water temperatures are hotter. Georgia had prohibited harvesting during that season, but its law changed in 2020. Now it restricts harvests to just those companies with permits. Nine companies have permits this summer. 

Yet in other southern states, including Florida and Louisiana, there are no restrictions for commercial oyster farming during warmer months. 

South Carolina oyster growers reported in 2021 that their lobbying efforts led lawmakers to open up harvesting during summer months. They cited the economic benefits for growers, restaurants and workers. They touted rapid cooling measures that limit risk of disease. And after the rules were relaxed, they fought back proposed restrictions to the harvesting season. 

In Canada, many experts and oyster harvesters in British Columbia say they long for the approach they see just south of the border in Washington State, which they say is ahead of the curve in regulating, testing and preventing contaminated shellfish from entering the market. 

If an illness outbreak occurs from Washington shellfish, an epidemiologist will do an evaluation to determine the source of the illness. If it is determined that it is not food handling at the restaurant but the oysters themselves, the harvesting grounds are shut down and the Department of Health reviews the evidence to determine the source of contamination.

“We also try to define [if] there is an ongoing source occurring in this area where we need to have a long-term closure and work with our partners to get things fixed before we reopen,” said Scott Berbells, manager of the Washington Department of Health’s shellfish growing area section.

Part of that investigation involves shoreline inspectors who show up at contamination areas looking for evidence of failing septic systems or wastewater plants as well as ships dumping human waste. 

“We have staff that are in the field that are going door to door, that are walking over drain field areas, inspecting onsite sewage systems, interviewing homeowners about their systems,” said Berbells. “Anything in the watershed that has the ability to impact the marine water, we have to look at and evaluate and determine that the risk is low enough to allow shellfish harvesting.”

That vigilance typically kicks into gear within hours, he said.

“If we get a report today, we try to be out in an area this afternoon, looking around, doing research, talking with our local health partners, trying to figure out what’s going on.”

The department also employs an environmental engineer who focuses on discharges from wastewater treatment plants, marinas and other potential sources of contamination. 

If a cause is found, such as an old septic system oozing human waste into coastline waters, state officials from public health and local health authorities work together to strategize a fix, including offering loans and grants to homeowners to make the repairs. 

“We don’t just walk away and call the area prohibited and say we’re done,” said Berbells. “We work with our partners to try and find the problem and fix it.” 

If a contamination source is not identified, the harvest area will be closed for a minimum of 21 days to ensure the virus dies off, although it could be longer depending on the season.

“We’re not going to solve every norovirus outbreak, but we certainly should be able to reduce the number of big outbreaks.”

— Timothy Green, Vancouver Island University

The state also takes a preventative approach to stopping contamination before it happens, including efforts to flag potential contamination sources in advance or closing harvest areas preemptively.

“We are constantly evaluating and reevaluating septic systems along the shoreline,” said Berbells. “This includes periodic inspections of those systems, and really maintaining those systems so they do not fail, finding the problem before it’s a failure, and fixing those minor problems before we have surfacing sewage in the area.”

Vancouver Island University’s Green said Washington State’s commitment to solving the problem rather than just identifying it and moving on is key to the long-term health of our waters. 

“We’re not going to solve every norovirus outbreak, but we certainly should be able to reduce the number of big outbreaks.” 

Lifelong Oyster Fan: “I Will Not Eat a Raw Oyster Again”

Around the same time that Kapczynski was sliding B.C. oysters into his mouth in Los Angeles last year, Jaya Flanary was eating oysters from those same harvesting beds.

Flanary was visiting Vancouver with her boyfriend, Isaiah, on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, from their home about 60 km south in Washington state. 

Before they headed out to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park to see the canyon lights, the couple decided to dine at a downtown seafood market.  

That night on the cliffwalk at Capilano, her boyfriend of four years proposed.

“It was great until it wasn’t,” she said. “I’ll have a vendetta against oysters forever.” 

By the next day, the couple’s engagement celebrations were spent experiencing intense nausea, cramps and what Flanary described as “the worst headache either of us have ever had.”

“We spent the entire night—his turn, my turn, his turn, my turn—projectile vomiting and shitting the entire night. It was the worst experience ever,” she said. 

Flanary hasn’t touched oysters since. 

Kapczynski, whose abdominal pain lingered for weeks after he consumed Baynes Sound oysters, has also avoided oysters ever since. 

“I will not eat a raw oyster again, for a long time, if ever,” he said. 

Learning of the long history of contamination in the Baynes Sound from reporters, he said the answer is obvious.

“Our food supply is so critical,” he said. “We have to do something about it.”

This story is a collaboration with the Toronto-based Investigative Journalism Bureau and the NYCity News Service on behalf of Inside Climate News and Postmedia, the largest newspaper chain in Canada, whose publications include The National Post, Vancouver Sun and Montreal Gazette. Max Rivera and Sasha Cohen contributed to this story.