News and Features by Region » Washington
Posted on March 9th, 2012 in Harmful Algal Blooms
Interdisciplinary, cross-agency partnerships are key to managing ecosystem-scale challenges but the ability to form lasting partnerships that truly meet the science needs of managers is often hindered by our ignorance of the challenges and benefits of institutional collaboration. The Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom (ORHAB) Partnership is the subject of a recent organizational management review [...]
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Posted on February 16th, 2012 in Chemical Contaminants, Coastal Pollution, Monitoring, News Clips
EDMONDS — On the jetty at Brackett’s Landing this past week, volunteers pried mussels from barnacle-encrusted boulders using serrated table knives. The tiny black bivalves dislodged to crinkling sounds on a frigid afternoon were too puny for any self-respecting chef to serve up on a steaming plate. No, these mussels were headed for Ziploc bags [...]
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Posted on February 6th, 2012 in Coral, Ecosystem Management
New research findings on deep-sea corals and seafloor topography along the US west coast are providing important information for fishery management decisions in the region. These fragile habitats are subject to protection under the Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization Act of 2006. The Act gives authority to the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) to modify protection zones and [...]
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Posted on February 1st, 2012 in Forecasting, Harmful Algal Blooms, Human Health, Technology Transfer
The January 2012 issue of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)’s Harmful Algae News No. 45 featured NCCOS harmful algal bloom forecasts–both under development and operational. The article, “Harmful Algal Bloom Operational Forecast System in the US,” describes each forecast, how far along it is in development, plans for the future, as well as why each system is [...]
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Posted on January 23rd, 2012 in Ecology & Oceanography, Harmful Algal Blooms, Human Health
A project to model favorable habitat areas for the dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella is underway in Washington’s Puget Sound. Sediment from nearly 100 sites will be sampled during two cruises in January and February and the cyst abundance mapped. Alexandrium produces potent neurotoxins that accumulate in shellfish and cause severe illness or death in people who eat [...]
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Posted on January 9th, 2012 in Ecology & Oceanography, Forecasting, Harmful Algal Blooms, Outreach
Dr. Barbara Hickey of the University of Washington recently presented the current status of their harmful algal bloom (HAB) modeling efforts to state, tribal, and federal agency partners with the Washington State Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom (ORHAB) Program. HAB managers learned of recent modeling advances that may benefit regional efforts to predict and mitigate [...]
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Posted on January 1st, 2012 in Forecasting, Harmful Algal Blooms, Human Health, News Clips, Technology Transfer
It was October 31, 1987—Halloween Day in the U.S. It seemed to be an otherwise ordinary day, but people on the beaches near Beaufort, North Carolina, were experiencing out of the ordinary respiratory distress. A bloom of “Florida red tide”, the toxic algae Karenia brevis, had unexpectedly appeared in North Carolina coastal waters for the first time on record. It [...]
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Posted on November 21st, 2011 in Climate Impacts, News Clips, Ocean Acidification
Standing on the shores of Netarts Bay in Oregon on a sunny fall morning, it’s hard to imagine that the fate of the oysters being raised here at the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery is being determined by what came out of smokestacks and tailpipes in the 1960s and ‘70s. But this rural coastal spot and [...]
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