ESSEX, Vt. (AP) – Red tide, already plaguing the shellfishing industry in coastal New England, is exacting a price inland in Vermont.

Seafood market and restaurant owners say they will absorb for as long as they can the rising prices and periodic shortages of shellfish caused by the outbreak.

Red tide contaminates shellfish, including clams and mussels, and makes them unsafe for people and animals to eat. The outbreak is the region’s worst since 1972 and is costing the New England shellfishing industry an estimated $3 million a week.

“You just bite the bullet,” said Adam Spell, owner of La Villa Mediterranean Bistro & Pizzeria in Shelburne, who prefers not to change his menu. “Eventually the red tide will go away and prices will go back to normal.”

Just when the toxic bloom will abate is up for speculation. Recent tests in Massachusetts show that the red tide is disappearing faster than expected in the waters off Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Officials say many shellfish beds might be safe to reopen by late next week.

In Maine, much of the coastline remains closed for the harvesting of shellfish.

Restaurant owners and local fishmongers are determined to ride it out. Most have not yet had to raise their prices, even though the cost of shellfish, particularly clams, has risen sharply since red tide hit.

At Ray’s Seafood Market in Essex, a family-run wholesale fish market and restaurant, owners are paying $150 for a bushel of clams – a 20 percent increase over this time last year. Clams and mussels were hard to come by earlier this month at Ray’s, evidence that the supply-demand balance had been tipped, manager Janice Clark said.

“We had a couple of trips where we couldn’t get clams, and we’ve been buying less because of the price,” Clark said.

Steven Hekler, seafood buyer for Black River Produce, Vermont’s largest shellfish distributor, said he’s seen demand for shellfish drop because of all the publicity about the toxic algae bloom.

“Demand is a little less because the consumers are wary and people are not ordering as much shellfish,” Hekler said.

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