Seafood Solutions, Inc., convicted in July, 2011 for intentionally mislabeling inexpensive farmed Asian catfish as more desirable wild-caught grouper, was recently sentenced in federal court. The company is to pay a $700,000 fine and make a community service donation of $300,000 to the non-profit National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. NCCOS forensic scientists genetically identified evidence [...]
A January 11 workshop was convened to help state fish and game officials respond to last September’s red tide off of Sonoma County, the likely culprit in a massive die-off of invertebrates, especially abalone. The National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science funded investigators determining the cause of the event, so this meeting brought together NCCOS [...]
This article originally appeared on the NOAA website. Scientists researching harmful algal bloom “hot spots” off southern and central California have been awarded $821,673 for the first year of an anticipated 5-year $4,076,929 project to investigate methods that could provide early warning detection of the toxic blooms, also known as red tides. The research is being conducted [...]
A pair of young rescued sea lions helped researchers determine that fetal exposure to a toxin called domoic acid resulted in epileptic seizures later in the marine mammals’ lives. The pups were rescued over a year ago on a California beach, and following observation became residents of the Kansas City Zoo. When the pair exhibited [...]
High Frequency Radar (HFR) can resolve ocean currents to a scale of 1 kilometer and extend out to approximately 150 kilometers offshore. In addition to oceanographic studies, HFR has proven useful to applications such as supporting oil spill response, search and rescue, fisheries, and coastal discharge assessment. Now, through the support of the Integrated Ocean [...]
Ocean conditions off southern California are now favorable to harmful algal bloom (HAB) formation, says a group that includes researchers at the University of Southern California. This prediction triggered the launch of the Offshore Water Quality Study field program which is using ship sampling, water column mapping, and modeling to characterize algal species, track blooms [...]
On March 2, the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science laboratory in Charleston, SC provided a rapid genetic identification of suspect whale sushi seized in a NOAA Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement (OLE) investigation of a California restaurant. The meat was identified as that of an endangered sei whale, providing agents with probable cause to [...]
Sea lions are ordinarily playful mammals…but toxic blooms of algae are making these critters sick. Learn how NOAA and its partners are studying sea lions to better understand how algae can cause illness in other mammals, including humans. “Sea Lion Sickness” is just one of many exciting videos on The Ocean Today Kiosk. For full [...]