It’s been almost a year since 150 young harbor seals died unexpectedly and washed up beaches in New Hampshire, southern Maine and northern Massachusetts. The New England Aquarium has taken this sad anniversary as an opportunity to share information with Seacoast communities about the cause of the deaths, ongoing monitoring efforts and to notify towns [...]
An ongoing NCCOS Event Response-funded investigation by Dr. Christopher Gobler at Stony Brook University has genetically identified the algal species Aureoumbra lagunensis as the culprit causing a brown tide bloom in east central Florida coastal lagoons. This confirms a significant expansion of brown tide harmful algal bloom (HAB) events in the United States. Previous Aureoumbra blooms had [...]
The repair of a massive pipe that carries wastewater to the ocean is inspiring one of the most elaborate scientific investigations in years along the Orange County coast. Missile-shaped robotic gliders, sensors tethered offshore and boats crisscrossing the ocean with instruments in tow – all are part of an attempt to learn which life forms [...]
Scientists have preliminary confirmation that the algae clobbering vital sea grass and many kinds of popular fish in the Indian River Lagoon is a super-tiny plant with a big name that is otherwise known as “brown tide.” The algae, Aureoumbra lagunensis, is so minuscule that billions of them can grow in every quart of lagoon [...]
Beginning in mid-September, the California Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) is temporarily diverting wastewater effluent from the main discharge pipe located 5 miles offshore (60m depth) of Los Angeles to a shorter pipe 1 mile offshore (17m depth) in order to evaluate the main pipe for maintenance. The diversion will last between 3-8 weeks. An [...]
A scientist will map the extent of a red tide bloom during the course of a hypoxia-mapping project cruise funded by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science’s Gulf of Mexico Ecosystems & Hypoxia Assessment program. The bloom, which was discovered August 10, caused massive fish kills and respiratory and eye irritation along the upper Texas coast. Local [...]
As a first-ever precautionary response to an unprecedented bloom of the toxic alga Pseudo-nitzschia in its waters, Maine officials have temporarily banned shellfish harvesting along part of the coast. A survey cruise and a volunteer monitoring network, both funded by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, identified the bloom species and mapped where and how big [...]
The National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science provided funds so that the state of Washington’s Department of Health, the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center HAB Program, and the SoundToxins partnership can analyze diarretic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxins in shellfish and monitor for Dinophysis, the dinoflagellate that produces the toxins. In 2011 three people became ill with DSP [...]