via Toxic turtles: Long-lasting chemicals could be harming sea turtles. — Environmental Health News.

The maps contribute to our understanding of the interaction between humans and environment, important for addressing issues such as pollution, coastal development, and resource management. The maps also clearly highlight marine areas valued by society.

This is the first effort to use the MPA center methodology to conduct participatory mapping workshops of human uses in the Caribbean. The reserve’s Coastal Use Mapping Project is a partnership of the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources, NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program, NOAA’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, and the St. Thomas East End Reserve Advisory Committee.

Too small: sampling this much of an algal bloom doesn’t provide a clear enough picture of what’s going on between all members of the microscopic community (image courtesy NOAA OAR, http://researchmatters.noaa.gov/ )

A pharmaceutical research and development startup and NOAA signed an agreement designed with two goals in mind.

The company, Biosortia, plans to discover and extract beneficial compounds from natural sources such as algae, and the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science wants to use Biosortia’s harvesting technology to unlock aquatic microorganisms’ secrets in a brand new way.

The agreement, in formal parlance a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement or “CRADA,” centers on a piece of equipment the company designed that can remove and concentrate large amounts of algae, collecting many pounds of tiny plants, animals, bacteria–the entire community of creatures living and interacting during a complex event such as an algal bloom. The NCCOS scientists use powerful and sophisticated equipment to tease out toxins, metabolites, and minute cellular signals lost when researchers take typical samples by the jarful. It’s like basing a restaurant review on one toothpick’s worth of a taste. Bloom events teem with highly complex chemical and physical exchanges that go undiscovered when researchers study an insufficient amount.

For its part, Biosortia will analyze the new compounds for beneficial medicines, nutritional supplements, natural pesticides, and other commercial uses to benefit jobs, health, and the environment. Both parties stand to gain much from this agreement.

NOAA’s Technology Partnerships office highlighted this agreement on their website.

Using NCCOS’s dedicated Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and chemistry facilities, scientists isolated, purified and structurally characterized the toxins. They also identified the critical role of environmental factors such as metal concentration and water pH that can dramatically alter the organism’s toxicity.

Publications

Title: Identification of Toxic Fatty Acid Amides Isolated from the Harmful Alga Prymnesium parvum carter
Reference: HARALG832
Journal title: Harmful Algae
Corresponding author: Dr. Peter D.R. Moeller
First author: Dr. Matthew J. Bertin
Online publication complete: 30-SEP-2012
DOI information: 10.1016/j.hal.2012.08.005

Title: The Contribution of Fatty Acid Amides to Prymnesium parvum Carter Toxicity
Reference: HARALG831
Journal title: Harmful Algae
Corresponding author: Dr. Peter D.R. Moeller
First author: Dr. Matthew J. Bertin
Online publication complete: 26-SEP-2012
DOI information: 10.1016/j.hal.2012.08.004

Crimian’s research focuses on the relationship between urban salt marsh restoration and human well-being. He was selected from more than 70 of the most qualified students in the world who are studying “ecosystem services,” a phrase that encompasses many direct and indirect benefits humans derive from our natural world.

At HML, Crimian is working on a variety of projects focused on the well-being of coastal communities. Crimian is featured in the College News section of the College of Charleston website in the article “Graduate Student to Present Research at International Conference”.

The university researchers will evaluate what effects petroleum and dispersant exposure have on embryonic stem cells from pygmy sperm whales, alligators, pigs and mice. Researchers will receive approximately $1.2 million award over the next three years for this work, which will contribute to the initiative’s theme 3: “Environmental Effects on Higher Life Forms”.

An expert panel winnowed 629 letters of intent from applicants, evaluating the research projects for scientific and technical merit. The panel recommended a number to the initiative’s research board which approved funding for only 19 of the proposals.

For more information, read “BP-Sponsored Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Awards New Grants”

Through a series of competitive grant programs, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative is investigating the impacts of the oil, dispersed oil, and dispersant on the ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico and the affected coastal states in a broad context of improving fundamental understanding of the dynamics of such events and their environmental stresses and public health implications.

Project: Using Embryonic Stem Cell Fate to Determine Potential Adverse Effects of Petroleum/Dispersant Exposure

Investigators: Demetri D. Spyropoulos, Satomi Kohno, John E. Baatz, and Louis J. Guillette, Medical University of South Carolina

PFCs are human-made compounds that have many uses including stain-resistant coatings, fire-fighting foams and emulsifiers in plastics manufacturing. They have become widespread pollutants, are detectable in human and wildlife samples worldwide, infiltrate food chains, and have been shown in laboratory animals — rats, mice and fish — to be toxic to the liver, the thyroid, neurobehavioral function and the immune system.

via Pollutants could pose health risks for five sea turtle species - Science Daily.

Transcript

NARRATOR: When you’ve got a bacterial infection like pink eye or strep throat, your doctor will usually write a prescription for antibiotics to make you feel better. But have you ever wondered where these medicines come from?

Most drugs come from flowers and plants on land, but finding new sources is difficult. And some bacteria have become resistant to a few of these drugs – so much in fact that these drugs don’t work any more. The ocean – with its amazing biodiversity – offers many more organisms for scientists to discover and develop new medicines.

NOAA scientists have been collecting and studying sponges, corals, and other marine organisms. They and their partners discovered a chemical that breaks down the shield that bacteria use to protect themselves from antibiotics. Used as a helper drug, antibiotics that are no longer effective would once again be able to fight off these resistant bacteria.

NOAA scientists have also extracted chemicals from corals and sponges that fight some of the worst infectious bacteria. In order to make these new antibiotics, scientists make copies of these chemicals in a laboratory. This way they won’t have to constantly harvest corals from the ocean, leaving our marine ecosystems healthy and intact.

The ocean may hold the key for finding new medicines, but not if we don’t keep it – and everything that lives there – healthy and pollution free. Do your part to protect coral reefs. Do not buy coral jewelry or home décor. And when snorkeling, fishing, or scuba diving, be careful to not touch or disrupt coral beds or the sea floor. The next cure could be hidden there.

Previous studies of bottlenose dolphins in waters surrounding Brunswick and Sapelo, Georgia have demonstrated local, large fluctuations in salinity regimes, unprecedented exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminants, and a higher prevalence of skin lesions compared to other stocks in the southeastern U.S.

Skin lesions on bottlenose dolphins are geographically widespread and highly prevalent; however, factors contributing to lesion occurrence and individual susceptibility are poorly understood. Sarah’s research will provide critical information to better identify exposures and localized environmental conditions that influence skin lesion development.

A higher prevalence of skin disease was also observed in the northern sites (Georgia and South Carolina) as compared to the most southern study area in Sarasota Bay, Florida.

Skin disease was also found to be more prevalent for dolphins from lower salinity waters within the Georgia study area. The findings from this study suggest that skin disease in coastal marine mammals can vary by population and may be influenced by seasonal or environmental fluctuations.

This report will benefit the community of marine mammal researchers, veterinarians, and epidemiologists who are interested in monitoring trends in disease and pathogen distribution as they relate to our changing climate.

Hart LB, Rotstein DS, Wells RS, Allen J, Barleycorn A, Balmer BC, Lane SM, Speakman T, Zolman ES, Stolen M, McFee W, Goldstein T, Rowles TK, Schwacke LH (2012) Skin lesions on common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) from three sites in the northwest Atlantic, USA. PLoS One. 7(3): e33081. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033081.

Florida red tides are caused by dense concentrations of Karenia brevis. These blooms can persist in the Gulf of Mexico for many months, resulting in extensive human health impacts, marine animal mortalities, and economic losses. After weeks to months, these blooms often quickly disappear. The mechanisms that cause bloom termination are not understood.

Built on decades of research on red tides, NOAA has developed and implemented an operational red tide forecast system available to coastal managers and residents that uses satellite images of blooms to predict bloom impacts. The long-term objective of the current research is to understand how the biology of Karenia brevis interacts with the oceanographic forces that drive harmful algal blooms, and then by incorporating indicators of the physiological status of red tide blooms into monitoring practices, to develop the ability to predict the termination of blooms and their impacts.

published in Marine Genomics 2012
More info on red tides

…

Lori Schwacke, the lead scientist for the health assessment, said the findings were preliminary and could not be conclusively linked to the oil spill at this point. But she said the exams were also conducted on control groups of dolphins that live along the Atlantic coast and in other areas that were not affected by the 2010 spill and that those dolphins did not manifest those symptoms.

via Gulf Dolphins Exposed to Oil Are Seriously Ill, Agency Says – NYTimes.com.

Based on comprehensive physicals of 32 live dolphins from Barataria Bay in the summer of 2011, preliminary results show that many of the dolphins in the study are underweight, anemic, have low blood sugar and/or some symptoms of liver and lung disease. Nearly half also have abnormally low levels of the hormones that help with stress response, metabolism and immune function.

via Study by NOAA and Partners Shows Some Gulf Dolphins Severely Ill : NOAA Gulf Spill Restoration.

A decade of collaboration between NCCOS and the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, CA produced an eight year retrospective analysis of hundreds of California sea lions with acute poisoning and chronic disese. Domoic acid is neurotoxin produced by the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia australis that accumulates in the prey of sea lions and causes lethargy, disorientation, aggression, and seizures.

In this new study of 73 sea lion blood samples to be published in in the April issue of Developmental and Comparative Immunology, the microarray correctly classified domoic acid and leptospirosis infected animals. This tool will be further evaluated in collaboration with the Marine Mammal Center for its utility in screening animals for previous domoic acid exposure.

• An eight year retrospective study
• Developmental and Comparative Immunology

Outputs of the workshops will include maps, GIS data layers, and a report. The project will fill a critical information gap in STEER management by providing managers with new information about the patterns of human use in the marine area. The maps will contribute to our understanding of the interaction between humans and environment, important for addressing issues such as pollution, coastal development, and resource management. Maps can also highlight marine areas highly valued by society. This is the first effort to use the MPA Center methodology to conduct participatory mapping workshops of human uses in the Caribbean.

The STEER Coastal Use Mapping Project is a partnership of the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR), NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP), NOAA’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM), NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), and the STEER Advisory Committee.