Last summer, massive blooms of a toxin-producing algae closed shellfish beds along large swaths of the Maine coast.

But consumers had few problems finding Maine clams, mussels and other shellfish at their local store or seafood dealer.

The reason? A team of state employees whose job was to make sure the shellfish beds that needed to be closed because of red tide were closed – and, equally important, that clean beds remained open to harvesting.

That safety net could disappear next year under a dire budget-cutting scenario proposed by the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Shellfish harvesters and dealers warned Tuesday that loss of the red tide monitoring program would likely be the death knell to yet another aspect of Maine’s commercial fishing tradition.

“This can’t happen because it will put the industry out of business,” said Jim Markos, manager of Maine Shellfish Co., a distributor with facilities in Ellsworth and Kennebunk.

DMR officials have submitted two proposals for dealing with the 10 percent budget reduction ordered by Gov. John Baldacci.

The first option would eliminate the state’s three red tide monitoring staff plus three marine patrol employees. The second option would increase all commercial license fees by 25 percent. Commercial fishing fees were last increased in 2003.

George LaPointe, the DMR commissioner, said the ultimate decision will be made by the governor and the Legislature. But without fee increases or cutting shellfish monitoring, the department would have to make across-the-board cuts.

“We targeted the shellfish program because … it very severely impacts one program as opposed to if we targeted marine patrol, it would severely affect all marine enforcement programs in Maine,” LaPointe said.

But LaPointe said he believes the fee increase proposal is a much better option for the state. “Obviously, we don’t want to propose something that would shut down the shellfish industry,” he said.

LaPointe and other DMR officials may be taking a political gamble that Baldacci, state lawmakers and the fishing community will be more willing to swallow hefty fee increases than allow Maine’s shellfish industry to disappear.

But would Maine’s commercial shellfish harvesters and dealers truly go belly up without red tide monitoring? LaPointe and industry representatives said that’s more than just a possibility.

Red tide is caused by blooms of naturally occurring algae that produce a toxin that is absorbed by shellfish as they feed. The algae does not sicken shellfish, but eating clams, mussels and other shellfish with high levels of toxins can cause sickness or death in humans.

Red tide is always present off the Atlantic coast. But levels of the algae vary dramatically from year to year, and 2008 was one of the worst on record.

While Mainers would obviously be hesitant to buy shellfish from areas that haven’t been monitored for red tide, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration won’t allow shellfish to be sold out of state without such monitoring.

“If we can’t ship out of state, we’re dead,” Markos said.

James West, a harvester from Sorrento who also serves on the Maine Shellfish Advisory Council, estimated that more than 90 percent of the mussels that he and his two partners sell through their company go to consumers in other states.

Elimination of the red tide monitoring program would put nearly a dozen full-time employees at their company, Eastern Maine Mussel Co., out of work as well as the boat crews.

While West said he could potentially fall back on lobstering, many shellfishermen in Maine do not hold other commercial fishing licenses – and probably could not get one because of the state’s “limited entry” rules.

“That will put a lot of people out of work,” he said.

Increasing fees by 25 percent would be costly for West, who estimated he pays between $1,000 and $1,500 for licenses annually. But West said the alternative of watching the shellfish industry go under is unacceptable.

“I won’t like it, but I’ll pay it,” he said. “I’m just shocked that it has come to this and that they are even thinking about it.”