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Impacts of harmful algal blooms
Impacts of harmful algal blooms
Problem Statement
We do not know enough about the biology and ecology of toxic phytoplankton in coastal
estuaries, bays, or oceans to rapidly assess the health risks they pose or to minimize
the economic impacts of fisheries closures they make necessary.
Critical Factors
- Marine biotoxins have been a historically persistent problem on the West
Coast of North America.
- Naturally occurring marine toxins produced by marine phytoplankton can
accumulate in shellfish, finfish, and marine mammals.
- These toxins threaten human health and also the health of marine mammals.
- Fish and shellfish exposed to biotoxins have demonstrated unusually high
incidences of carcinogenesis, immune system depression, and depressed growth.
- Economically-depressed coastal communities that depend on shellfish and
finfish face significant risks from outbreaks of marine toxins that force
regulators to close harvests.
- Closures of recreational fisheries can also economically devastate
coastal communities.
- The U.S. and Canadian shellfish industries have been damaged by the
presence of domoic acid in Dungeness crab and Canadian mussels.
- The primary algal species that produce domoic acid and the environmental
factors that trigger toxin production are unknown.
Status of Research
The Northwest Fisheries Science Center's (NWFSC) Marine Biotoxins Program
is developing methods of 1) identifying and analyzing marine toxins and
the algae that produce them, 2) identifying the conditions that produce blooms
of noxious phytoplankton, 3) determining how the toxins are transmitted to,
and how they affect, target organisms, and 4) determining the health risks
that biotoxins pose for fish and shellfish. NWFSC scientists are studying:
Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP); Domoic Acid or Amnesiac Shellfish Poisoning
(ASP), and Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP). They are also collecting and
identifying phytoplankton in the water column and studying the production of
toxins by certain phytoplankton species.
Future Considerations
Phytoplankton chaetocerossp.
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To reduce the health and economic risks posed by toxic algal blooms,
we must continue to learn more about the biological mechanisms through
which toxins are produced and transmitted. As new in-formation becomes
available, it must be transferred quickly to other government agencies,
trade groups, and industry. In addition, new, efficient technologies for
identifying marine biotoxins must be developed so that time and expense
can be reduced in the management of harmful algal blooms (HABs).
Key Players
Environmental Conservation (EC) Division, NWFSC
Marine Sanctuary Program, NOAA
Center for Coastal Monitoring & Assessment, NOAA
Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife
Washington Department of Health
Oregon Department of Agriculture
Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
U.S. Food & Drug Administration California State Health Services (Food and Drug Branch)
University of Washington
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Quileute Indian Tribe
Olympic Coast Marine Sanctuary Program
Contact: Dr. Tracy Collier, Director, EC Division (206/860-3312)
NWFSC Issue Paper EC 6503 (HQ ID 282/308)
Issue Papers Home
last modified 2002-07-29
Web site owner: Northwest Fisheries Science Center
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