Saving Seafood

US lawmakers seek to strengthen, reauthorize algal bloom research efforts

February 7, 2025 — U.S. federal lawmakers have reintroduced a bill to reauthorize and strengthen the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act (HABHRCA), legislation that created an interagency task force to coordinate state and federal responses to harmful algal blooms (HAB).

“The scale and frequency of harmful algal blooms and hypoxia events continue to increase with climate change, damaging beloved places, harming fisheries central to coastal economies, affecting tourism, and threatening public and ecosystem health,” U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, one of the sponsors of the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2025, said in a statement. “This legislation will empower coastal and freshwater communities to better monitor these disastrous events and leverage research to mitigate and prevent their worst effects.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA announces funding for algal bloom research

October 15, 2023 — NOAA has announced USD 20 million (EUR 19 million) in awards for research on dangerous algal blooms and hypoxia.

“Harmful algal blooms and hypoxia affect coastal and inland waters and can be devastating to communities and businesses,” Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Office Director Carl Gouldman said. “These awards are part of NOAA’s ongoing commitment to advance our abilities to forecast, manage, and mitigate the effects of these events nationwide.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: Hot weather fuels algal blooms in Casco Bay that may be killing soft-shell clams

August 16, 2022 — Three dense and very large algal blooms fueled by extreme heat in recent weeks may have contributed to the deaths of a significant number of soft-shell clams in eastern Casco Bay.

The blooms, which cause a reddish brown or mustard-yellow discoloration of ocean waters, are concentrated in Maquoit Bay off Brunswick and Freeport; in Middle Bay off Brunswick and Harpswell; and in Basin Cove in Harpswell.

The Friends of Casco Bay sounded the alarm about the bloom on Monday, describing it as very concerning. The Maine Department of Marine Resources has also taken notice of the algal bloom, but said it is nontoxic.

“The blooms are not harmful to people who consume shellfish or swim in the waters, but due to the high cell concentration, anoxic conditions could occur, which may result in limited marine organism mortalities,” the DMR said in a statement.

Read the full article at the Press Herald

Researchers Study the Effects of Harmful Algal Blooms

December 1, 2021 — The sample bottle came back from the river, over the gunwale, and into the boat. The water sample was a dark reddish-brown, like strong, steeped tea that you are unable to see through. Literally tens of thousands of algal cells made up every drop of the water sample. Back at the laboratory, scientists at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) will analyze the sample to determine the type and density of algal species in the water. The samples, taken from the York River in the Southern Chesapeake Bay allow scientists to study harmful algal blooms, also called HABs. According to NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal and Ocean Science, almost every state in the nation now experiences some kind of HAB event. The number of hypoxic water bodies in the United States has increased 30 fold since the 1960s, with more than 300 coastal systems now impacted.

As you might guess from the name, the tiny microscopic organisms making up HABs are algae, which are a very diverse group of organisms. Phytoplankton are a type of algae usually responsible for creating blooms. Most often, these phytoplankton are made up of an equally diverse group of organisms known as dinoflagellates, which can be found in both fresh and marine waters.

Blooms Occur Worldwide

HABs are a growing concern worldwide, occurring in the Gulf of Mexico and surprising places such as the Alaskan Arctic. Globally warming water temperatures, a result of our changing climate, is one reason blooms are occurring more frequently and over a global scale.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

Senate Panel Told Nation’s Algae Woes Will Worsen If Not Addressed

August 29, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The spread of toxic algal blooms in the nation’s waterways – largely caused by a combination of warming water, contaminant run off and “supercharged bacteria” – won’t stop anytime soon, one scientist told lawmakers Tuesday.

During a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee hearing, scientist Donald Anderson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, told lawmakers that after 40 years of study on toxic blooms, he is convinced that the outbreaks will only persist and worsen if left unaddressed.

The blooms vary greatly in composition and color; some are red, some green, and others gold.

In freshwater, the blooms are typically caused when simple algae collides with cynobacteria, or blue-green algae.

While some algae growth can be beneficial and the exact causes for emergent blooms vary in both fresh and marine water, Anderson said, it is climate change which will “almost certainly” continue to influence the pervasiveness of dangerous algal build up.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

 

Florida’s unusually long red tide is killing wildlife, tourism and businesses

August 29, 2018 — SIESTA KEY, Fla. — Even as she sat under the brilliant Florida sun, her toes covered in sugar-white sand, Alex McShane wasn’t exactly enjoying her summer vacation. Florida’s worst red tide in more than a decade had turned the aqua-blue surf to a rusty dull brown.

And then there were the lifeguards. They were wearing gas masks.

With no mask of her own, McShane, 24, wore a frown. Her eyes itched, she coughed, and the stench was giving her a headache — all telltale symptoms of the monster algal bloom spanning the southern Gulf Coast. It is killing untold numbers of marine animals from Bradenton to Naples, where rotting fish still lay scattered on a beach behind Gov. Rick Scott’s seaside mansion, even after a cleanup.

As the outbreak nears the year mark, with no sign of easing, it’s no longer a threat to just marine life. Business owners in the hardest-hit counties report they have lost nearly $90 million and have laid off about 300 workers because of the red tide and a separate freshwater algal bloom in the state’s largest lake. Together, the two blooms have caused a sharp drop in tourism.

A pair of toxic algal blooms striking the state at the same time is rare and, in this case, especially lethal. A red tide is a natural phenomenon that develops miles offshore before making its way to the coast, where it feeds on a variety of pollutants, including phosphorus and nitrogen from fertilizer, along with other runoff and wastewater.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Algae bloom forces suspension of shellfishing in parts of Down East Maine

It’s the second straight year that a bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia, a phytoplankton that can carry toxic domoic acid, has forced a closure along large parts of the coast.

September 15, 2017 — A marine algae bloom that can carry a potentially deadly neurotoxin has forced the suspension of shellfish harvesting in parts of Down East Maine.

The state Department of Marine Resources reported Thursday that it was monitoring an active bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia, an ocean phytoplankton that carries domoic acid, a toxin that can cause sickness, memory loss and brain damage in humans. It’s the second year in a row that a toxic Pseudo-nitzschia bloom has halted harvesting of mussels, clams and oysters along large parts of the coast.

Before 2016, there was no record of a toxic bloom of this type in the Gulf of Maine.

The department’s public health section found levels of domoic acid that exceeded health standards in shellfish tested between Mount Desert Island and Gouldsboro. That area has been closed to harvesting and the department enacted a precautionary closure from Deer Isle to Machiasport, almost a third of Maine’s coastline.

Department spokesman Jeff Nichols said officials were monitoring the situation closely. There is no indication that contaminated shellfish have made their way to consumers, he said.

“It is impossible to determine at this point if the concentrations of domoic acid will increase in other areas,” Nichols said. “But we know that the phytoplankton that produces it grows rapidly, so we are carefully monitoring the entire coast and will be able to rapidly detect harmful levels of domoic acid and take action to protect the health of Maine’s shellfish consumers.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

The gross reason your salmon is about to get (even more) expensive.

January 25, 2017 — The bad news is you may have to cut back on how much salmon you eat. The good news is when you find out the gross reason why, you might not have much of an appetite anyway.

Salmon farms in Norway and Scotland, two of the world’s largest exporters, have been decimated by sea lice, a parasite that has feasted on the blood and skin of salmon for millennia. Farther south in Chile, a toxic algae bloom has killed enough of the fish to fill several Olympic swimming pools.

As the salmon die by the millions, it’s causing a supply-and-demand ripple effect that’s reaching deep into American wallets.

Worldwide farmed salmon production fell by 8.7 percent in a year, according to the Financial Times. And the Nasdaq Salmon Index showed a nearly 15 percent jump in salmon prices in the last three months.

In the near future, it only promises to get worse. And the dying fish and rising prices could fan the debate about whether growing salmon in giant ocean farms is sustainable.

For fans of salmon nigiri or frozen fillets plucked from supermarket freezers for quick, heart-healthy protein, expect salmon portions to shrink — and prices to grow, experts say.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

Massive Pacific Coast Algal Bloom Dissipates from BC Coast

July 8, 2015 — The threat from a large toxic algae bloom, which settled off the B.C. coast in May, has abated, according to scientists.

The Pacific Ocean bloom had sparked concern along the coast from California all the way to Alaska.

Though the situation in B.C. waters wasn’t as bad as further south, the bloom was serious enough to cause shellfish closures. At the time, researchers were concerned that shellfish and other marine life, including razor clams, crabs, hake and West Coast sardines, could have elevated levels of domoic acid, a neurotoxin that causes amnesic shellfish poisoning.

Read the full story at the CBC