News and Announcements
Invasive Tunicate Species Survives Extensive Damage, Lengthy Travel: Scientists
Researchers have learned that fragments of invasive colonial sea squirt colonies can survive in the water column up to four weeks, disperse long distances, and even reproduce before resettling. These simple animals, tunicates called Didemnum, cause ecological and economic damage by gumming up boat hulls, fishing nets, aquaculture gear, docks, and buoys. They modify habitats [...]
SoundHAB – Puget Sound HAB Partnership Begins 7th Year
SoundHAB is an e-mail listserv for researchers, state and local managers, and the mariculture industry to share timely information about harmful algal blooms (HABs) throughout the Salish Sea area of the Pacific Northwest (i.e., the Strait of Georgia, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Puget Sound), especially marine waters of Western Washington state. More than [...]
ESA declares end of mission for Envisat | SpaceRef – Your Space Reference
Just weeks after celebrating its tenth year in orbit, communication with the Envisat satellite was suddenly lost on 8 April. Following rigorous attempts to re-establish contact and the investigation of failure scenarios, the end of the mission is being declared. A team of engineers has spent the last month attempting to regain control of Envisat, [...]
Asian tiger shrimp invade U.S. waters – USATODAY.com
Though tasty with lemon and garlic butter, Asian tiger shrimp are spreading through the Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Seaboard and menacing those areas’ ecosystems. The crustaceans can measure up to 13 inches long and weigh nearly a pound, with dark and white stripes circling their bodies. They can be very disruptive to the Gulf’s [...]
Device may help forecast outbreaks of red tide – Boston.com
Bruce Keafer calls it a robot in a box. Roughly the size of a kitchen sink, it was lowered into the waters off Portsmouth, N.H., last week, where it will sample marine organisms to measure toxic red tide cells over the next 45 days. The device, he hopes, will be a tool for forecasting outbreaks [...]
New Test Identifies Low Level Toxin Exposure to Protect Human Health
A NCCOS Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB)-funded study at the University of Washington and the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service laboratory in Seattle has developed a unique and convenient way to detect very low levels of exposure to the harmful algal toxin domoic acid in laboratory zebrafish and in wild California Sea Lions. [...]
NOAA and Partner Scientists Discover Way to Detect Low-level Exposure to Seafood Toxin in marine animals
NOAA scientists and their colleagues have discovered a biological marker in the blood of laboratory zebrafish and marine mammals that shows when they have been repeatedly exposed to low levels of domoic acid, which is potentially toxic at high levels. While little is known about how low-level exposure to domoic acid affects marine animals or [...]
Sensor Monitors Gulf of Maine Algae for Signs of Approaching Red Tides
Late last week (April 26), researchers funded by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science deployed a sensor that detects cells of the species of algae responsible for toxic red tides in the Gulf of Maine. The device relays its data back to scientists on land to enable state agencies decide whether or not to [...]