Event Response Program
We help state and local officials responding to algae blooms by providing
them access to tissue toxin analysis, training, or technical assistance; even funds to deploy ships for offshore sampling. (Photo credit: Judy Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
NCCOS
HAB Event Response Program provides immediate assistance for managing events
and advancing the understanding of HABs as they occur. Upon notification of an
event, we provide access to the best technology and expertise available, provide
supplemental financial support for investigating a unique event, and ensure proper
scientific documentation to add to the HAB knowledge base.
Modest funding is available
to help defray costs of immediate mobilization of sampling, supplies and analytical
services. Due to limited resources we prioritize three types of events:
- Appearance of species, toxicity, or harmful impacts that are unusual or unique for
a particular U.S. coastal region and pose threats to public health and/or economically
vital resources or that may lead to new discoveries in
HAB science;
- Sudden or unexplained mortalities of seabirds, fish, or marine mammals for which
a HAB linkage is suspected but that requires confirmation through additional sampling
or observations; and
- HAB events with major management or resource impacts for which additional data such
as the size or extent of the outbreak, causative species, hydrographic characteristics
of the associated water mass will be of use in subsequent management decisions.
This program is run in partnership with the U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal
Blooms at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.