HAB Research: Research Partnerships

Image of scientist taking a water sample Research Partnerships

Effective marine research requires collaboration among a myriad of disciplines ranging from sample collection, mathematical modeling and laboratory analyses. These ranges of skills and abilities are not found within a single agency, therefore partnering with others becomes a necessity. The HAB team has partnered itself with not only state agencies but also with various interested constituency groups to help meet these needs. Partnerships foster trust and acceptance among risk managers when they can directly observe the benefits of new sampling and surveillance technologies.

ORHAB(The Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom partnership)

The Olympic Peninsula coast of Washington state has an abundance of shellfish for both recreational and subsistence fishers. It is relatively far from urban centers and is noted for its pristine beauty, making it desirable for recreational shellfishing. The remoteness of this area made sampling infrequent and sparse, making traditional risk management programs for marine biotoxins difficult. These limitations required that large sections of the area be closed when toxins were discovered in shellfish in order to ensure public safety. Closures were long-lasting and extensive, creating tremendous financial impacts on recreational/tourist businesses. Because of these difficulties, residents of the area asked for improved protection from marine biotoxins. It became clear that in order to better manage these outbreaks there was a need for improved sampling and surveillance techniques based on a better understanding of the underlying dynamics of HAB events.

Concerned residents of the area formed a citizen's committee to see if funding could be obtained to create a research program for the improvement of monitoring of marine toxins in the Olympic region. The ORHAB Partnership was formed in June 1999 by local residents and coastal communities in response to seemingly random closures of the shellfisheries due to outbreaks of marine biotoxins (Paralytic Shellfish Poison and domoic acid) in razor clams. These efforts were rewarded in the summer of 2000 when NOAA funded a pilot program to study new monitoring and surveillance techniques to improve the risk management of marine biotoxins.

The ORHAB project is bringing knowledge to the local communities on the Olympic peninsula of the Washington State coast, empowering the tribes and state managers to make scientifically-based decisions about managing and mitigating harmful algal bloom (HAB) impacts on coastal fishery resources.

ECOHAB PNW (Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms in the Pacific Northwest)

In 1998 the NWFSC HAB biotoxin program initiated a survey of Pseudo-nitzschia and domoic acid along the west coast of the United States (Washington to California). This survey suggested that domoic acid producing Pseudo-nitzschia originate in waters off the Washington coast in a retentive feature called the Juan De Fuca eddy. Some ORHAB studies also suggested that this eddy, with its relatively high nutrient levels, might be an initiation site for toxic blooms of Pseudo-nitzschia that impact shellfish on beaches along the Washington coast. Based on that work, NOAA recently funded an ECOHAB study that will focus on toxic Pseudo-nitzschia bloom initiation and transport from the Juan de Fuca eddy.