PEMBROKE (AP) – Several clam flats closed six weeks ago because of red tide have reopened on Maine’s Cobscook Bay.

Tests by the Department of Marine Resources show the clam flats in the Pembroke, Edmunds and Whiting are now safe for harvesting.

“We did tests that showed it is safe enough to open the inside of the bay for soft-shell clams,” David Etnier, the department’s deputy commissioner, said from Hallowell. “We don’t know if we will open more flats or not.”

Department of Marine Resources water monitors will continue sampling additional areas Down East next week for both clams and mussels, Etnier said.

Some clam diggers took advantage of Friday’s tides after the order was signed by Etnier. They sold to local clam buyers for a $1.40 a pound, evidence of the depressed market. Buyers had been paying $1.80 at the time of the closures in June.

A massive bloom of toxic red tide struck the New England coast in May following stormy weather that blew the phytoplankton from offshore waters to the coast.

Local diggers will ask the state at a public meeting this week why the scores and results of tests taken throughout the last six weeks have not been publicized or made available to them.

“If the state keeps everyone in the dark long enough about this, then nobody will make any money,” said Albion Goodwin, the former state representative from Pembroke.

The state’s problem, Etnier said, is that there is a shortage of water monitors people who do the testing for the red tide scourge along the coast.

There are just five full-time testers to handle the entire coast, plus some contracted seasonal employees. “It’s about money,” Etnier said.

“However you arrange the testers, there are never enough.”