Researchers issue outlook for a significant New England 'red tide' in 2010

Seed population portends a large regional bloom; impacts will depend on ocean conditions and weatherToday, scientists from the NOAA-funded Gulf of Maine Toxicity (GOMTOX) project issued an outlook for a significant regional bloom of a toxic alga that can cause 'red tides' in the spring and summer of this year, potentially threatening the New England shellfish industry.An abundant seed population in bottom sediments has set the stage for a significant bloom of the toxic alga Alexandrium fundyense. This organism swims in the water, and divides again and again to form a "bloom" or red tide, but it also produces dormant cells or cysts that fall to the ocean bottom at the end of these blooms.A cyst survey conducted in late 2009 shows the highest amount of cysts the team has ever measured, more than 60 percent higher than what was observed prior to the historic red tide of 2005. The cyst bed also appears to have expanded to the south, and thus the 2010 bloom may affect areas such as Massachusetts Bay and Georges Bank sooner than has been the case in past years.This year's bloom could be similar to the major red tides of 2005 and 2008, according to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist Don Anderson, principal investigator of the GOMTOX study. The 2005 bloom shut down shellfish beds from Maine to Martha's Vineyard (Mass.) for several months and caused an estimated $20 million in losses to the Massachusetts shellfish industry alone. The 2008 outbreak was similar in scale.Although the algae in the water pose no direct threat to human beings, the toxins they produce can accumulate in filter-feeding organisms such as mussels and clams— which can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in humans who consume them.In order to protect public health, shellfish beds are closed when toxicities rise above a quarantine level—often during the peak harvesting season. Due to effective monitoring by state agencies, there have been no illnesses from legally harvested shellfish in recent years—despite some severe blooms during that time period. There have been, however, several severe poisonings of individuals who ignored closure signs.WHOI oceanographers Dennis McGillicuddy and Anderson, and North Carolina State University (NCSU) Prof. Ruoying He are several years along in the development of a computer model to predict the intensity and location of blooms of the toxic algae Alexandrium fundyense in the Gulf of Maine. The model is initiated from the cyst abundance maps, and simulates Alexandrium germination, growth and dispersal using each year's winds, sunlight, rainfall, tides, and currents.Scientists are reluctant to make a "forecast" of precisely where and when the regional bloom will make landfall because bloom transport depends on weather events that cannot be predicted months in advance."Our research has shown that cyst abundance in the fall is an indicator of the magnitude of the bloom in the following year," said GOMTOX member McGillicuddy. "However, even if there is a large bloom offshore, certain wind patterns and ocean currents in the late spring and summer are needed to transport it onshore where it can affect coastal shellfish."Coastal exposure to the blooms is worst for scenarios in which the spring and summer weather is dominated by strong northeast winds, which tend to drive Alexandrium cells toward the New England coast. That occurred last year (2009), when an unusual series of northeast winds in late June and early July led to closure of almost the entire Maine coast to shellfishing. In contrast, when southwesterlies dominate, the algae tend to stay offshore.GOMTOX researchers regularly share their field observations and models with more than 80 coastal resource and fisheries managers in six states as well as federal entities like NOAA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration.Managers believe that a regional-scale, seasonal outlook can be useful in preparing for contingencies. This advanced warning, along with updates closer to and during the red tide season, can help state agencies prepare for monitoring red tides and assessing public health risks, and also give shellfish farmers and fishermen the opportunity to shift the timing of their harvest or postpone plans for seeding of aquaculture beds. Area restaurants may also benefit from advance warnings by making contingency plans for seafood supplies during the summer."Red tide is a chronic problem in the Gulf of Maine, and states have limited resources to handle it," said Darcie Couture, director of Biotoxin Monitoring for the Maine Department of Marine Resources. "When we get this information about the potential severity of a red tide season, and the dynamics of the bloom once the season has started, it gives us an advantage in staging our resources during an otherwise overwhelming environmental and economic crisis."Ruoying He, representing scientists from the GOMTOX project, will present data and models on the projected bloom at the 2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting today in Portland, Ore.The GOMTOX project, funded by NOAA's ECOHAB Program, is a collaboration of investigators from NOAA, WHOI, NCSU, University of Maine, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Rutgers University, the Food and Drug Administration, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Maine Department of Marine Resources, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the North Atlantic Clam Association. Other support for Alexandrium studies in the Gulf of Maine is provided by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation through the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health.The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, independent organization in Falmouth, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the oceans' role in the changing global environment.

Study finds link between bacteria, red tide blooms

Researchers have found a link between bacteria and the algae that causes the red tide outbreaks that leave beachgoers wheezing and shorelines strewn with dead fish.The findings may allow scientists to better predict when the population of algae will explode to create a bloom, said William Sunda, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist who co-wrote a report on the study.And in the distant future, the discovery may point to a way to stop a bloom or diminish its effects, he said.A red tide occurs in Florida waters when tiny algae grow into such prodigious numbers they turn the water a reddish color. They secrete toxins that kill fish and other marine creatures and can cause respiratory problems for people.The algae constantly inhabit the waters around Florida but are normally in numbers too low to cause problems.The NOAA research found that a type of bacteria provides a necessary element for the algae to blast into a frenzy of reproduction.The bacteria and algae work together in a symbiotic relationship.Scientists found that the bacteria release a compound that lets the algae absorb iron, something essential for photosynthesis in all plants but also difficult for the algae to get from seawater."The algae need a lot of iron," Sunda said.Without the extra iron, there would be no algae blooms, he said.In return, the algae produce nutrients for the bacteria so its population can expand and produce more iron for the algae."The whole process feeds on itself," he said.Experiments that eliminated the bacteria either killed the algae or kept it from growing, Sunda said."We always knew the bacteria was there," he said. But scientists did not know its role in boosting the red tide blooms.None of the current computer models used to predict red tide considers the bacteria populations as a factor in the forecasts."The next generation of models could include this," Sunda said.If scientists can figure out a way to safely control the bacteria, it might reveal a method to control the red tide outbreaks."These particular algae and bacteria need each other," Sunda said.

Researchers report 'moderately large' potential for red tide outbreak in Gulf of Maine region

Toxic bloom expected to be smaller than last year, but still significantThe potential for an outbreak of the phenomenon commonly called "red tide" is expected to be "moderately large" this spring and summer, according to researchers with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and North Carolina State University (NCSU). This advisory is based in part on a regional seafloor survey of quantities of Alexandrium fundyense — the algae notorious for producing a toxin that accumulates in clams, mussels, and other shellfish and can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in humans who consume them. The survey maps are used with computer models that simulate different scenarios of weather and oceanographic conditions to indicate where and in what abundance the toxic cells might be expected in 2009. The researchers found concentrations of Alexandrium cysts — the dormant seed-like stage of the algae's life cycle — in the Gulf of Maine to be 40 percent lower than the historically high levels observed prior to last year's bloom, but still higher than the level preceding a major regional bloom in spring 2006 that closed shellfish beds from Canada to Massachusetts Bay. The Alexandrium survey has been conducted each fall since 2004 as part of several research and event response projects funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research (CSCOR). Fall concentrations of Alexandrium cysts are one of the indicators of the magnitude of a potential bloom in spring.In October 2008, a survey team led by Don Anderson, a senior scientist in the WHOI Biology Department and the lead investigator of the Gulf of Maine Toxicity (GOMTOX) study, spent 10 days collecting seafloor sediment samples between Massachusetts Bay and the Bay of Fundy looking for Alexandrium cysts. After the samples were processed and analyzed, the team determined the cyst abundance to be about 40 percent lower than the high levels observed in fall 2007 (see figure).This is one line of evidence that leads Anderson and his colleagues to believe the bloom this spring won't be as extensive as last year's, which closed shellfish beds from the Canadian border to the Cape Cod Canal, and on the outer portions of Cape Cod as well. "Last year at this time, we issued an advisory for a very large regional bloom that did in fact occur. In hindsight, that advisory was 'easy' because the cyst concentrations were higher than we had ever seen – 30 percent higher than in 2004 just before the massive 2005 red tide that many people probably remember," said Anderson. "It's more difficult to make a prediction this year because the numbers of cysts we found are not extreme."The cysts for this year's bloom have been dormant in the seabed since late last summer, when they were formed at the end of the Alexandrium bloom. With the onset of spring and its warm temperatures and increased light, the cysts are already beginning to germinate, liberating cells that swim to the surface waters. Under the right conditions, a single cell can then divide into several hundred cells within a few weeks. But where and when the resulting bloom will make landfall depends on weather events that cannot be predicted months in advance.That's where computer modeling can help. While cyst abundance gives a general indication of the magnitude of the bloom, oceanographers Dennis McGillicuddy, a senior scientist in the WHOI Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering department, and his colleague Ruoying He of North Carolina State University (NCSU) have been working with Anderson to simulate the resulting growth and transport of the toxic cells using computer models. Working together over the last decade, the team has developed a computer simulation that incorporates weather conditions, river runoff, and various wind and current patterns to predict the intensity and location of blooms of the toxic algae in the Gulf of Maine.With data from last year's cyst counts, the WHOI and NCSU team ran their computer model through a range of scenarios, using the predominant regional wind patterns and ocean conditions from each year since 2004. (See figure......)According to He and McGillicuddy, the simulations suggest a moderately large regional bloom of Alexandrium, falling in the mid range of those that have occurred over the last five years. Red tides during those years have ranged from very large ones that stretched from the Canadian border to southern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and the Islands, to small outbreaks that have only caused limited harvesting closures in Maine, New Hampshire, and northern Massachusetts.The researchers have found that toxicity in near-shore shellfish is the highest for years in which northeasterly storms occur, which tend to drive Alexandrium cells toward the southern New England coast. When southwesterly winds dominate, the algae tend to remain offshore. So even when there are a lot of cells in the Gulf of Maine, toxicity can be confined to offshore waters if the winds and currents cooperate.The Alexandrium cells can be expected to appear in surface waters in early April. By the end of that month, cells usually begin to appear in large numbers in the waters off coastal Maine and New Hampshire, which is when and where the first reports of toxicity typically appear. As the coastal bloom is transported to the south, the Massachusetts shoreline can be impacted as well. The severity of this year's outbreak along the coast will depend in large part on the wind patterns in May, June, and July. The GOMTOX researchers regularly share their results with coastal resource and fisheries managers in six states and at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration (which oversees the safety of offshore shellfish beyond state limits). "We can only issue an advisory, as opposed to a forecast," says Anderson. "We can estimate how many cells will be in the water from the germination of cysts and potential growth of that population, but not whether those cells and that water will be blown to shore." These types of red tide or harmful algal bloom (HAB) advisories can help the economy. Advance warning of a potentially troublesome year for algae can give shellfish farmers and fishermen time to make contingency plans for the timing of their harvest or expansion of aquaculture beds; state agencies can make informed staffing decisions to accommodate additional monitoring that might be required to protect public health and the shellfish industry.The WHOI and NCSU researchers underscore that even when these major red tides occur, shellfish and other seafood products are safe to eat because they are carefully monitored. Shellfish stocks are regularly tested by state and federal agencies, ensuring that contaminated growing areas are closed to harvesting, and that dangerous product does not reach the market.

This research was supported by NOAA's Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research, and the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation (through the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health). Additional work examining other species of toxic algae in the Gulf and on Georges Bank is supported by the NOAA Oceans and Human Health Initiative (OHHI).The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, independent organization in Falmouth, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the oceans' role in the changing global environment.

Harmful 'red tide' hits Dubai beaches

Beaches in the Gulf tourism hub of Dubai have been plagued by a bloom of algae known as the "red tide" that has killed fish and is potentially harmful to humans, a municipality official said on Tuesday."This is a natural fauna that goes into harmful algal bloom," said Mohammed Abdulrahman Hassan, head of the marine and wildlife section in the municipality's environment office.The algae can cause skin and eye irritations as well as breathing problems for people, who should avoid swimming near it, Hassan said.The algae, whose scientific name is Cochlodinium polykrikoides, absorb oxygen at a high rate, especially at night. Reduced oxygen levels can harm fish, and the algae can also kill them by clogging their gills.On Tuesday municipality officials found algae near the iconic sail-shaped Burj Al-Arab Hotel, but Hassan said it was pointless closing sections of beach since the bloom was constantly on the move."People should use common sense. If they see the bloom or dead fish, they should not touch it and should not swim in that area," he said.Newspaper reports said the phenomenon has plagued neighbouring emirates Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah for months, killing hundreds of tonnes of fish.One of the seven emirates comprising the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is popular with tourists and residents alike for its sunbaked beaches

FWC scientists help create benchmark for future red tide research

FWC SCIENTISTS HELP CREATE BENCHMARK FOR FUTURE RED TIDE RESEARCHRed tide experts with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) have contributed to the most comprehensive assessment of Florida red tide published to date. This month's special issue of the scientific journal "Harmful Algae" summarizes current red tide research. In 2006, FWRI, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Mote Marine Laboratory sponsored the "State of the Research on Red Tide in the Gulf of Mexico" scientific workshop. Nine articles resulting from this workshop appear in this special issue of "Harmful Algae," including three landmark articles by FWRI scientists. Having studied Florida's red tide for more than 40 years, Dr. Karen Steidinger provides historical perspective on red tide research in the Gulf of Mexico. Drs. Jan Landsberg and Leanne Flewelling review recent research on how red tide toxins affect marine life, including manatees and birds, both during and after a red tide event. Drs. Cindy Heil and Steidinger address how the state monitors and manages red tide to protect human and environmental health. The articles in "Harmful Algae," which also summarize Florida red tide biology, research and technology, will help FWRI scientists and their partners continue their efforts to predict, monitor and manage red tide's environmental impacts and will provide a benchmark for future research.A Florida red tide is a dense concentration of a microscopic, single-celled, plant-like organism called Karenia brevis. This organism produces toxins that can kill fish, birds, manatees and other marine animals, affecting endangered species and important fisheries. Red tide toxins in the air can irritate the human respiratory system, and eating shellfish exposed to red tide toxins can cause food poisoning. To ensure public safety, FWRI works with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to monitor Florida's shellfish beds for red tide toxins.

Seabird Deaths Linked To Soap-like Foam Produced By Red-tide Algae

In late 2007, hundreds of dead and stranded seabirds washed up on the shores of Monterey Bay, their feathers saturated with water and coated with an unknown substance. After an intensive investigation, scientists determined that a massive "red tide" bloom of marine algae had produced a foamy soap-like substance that stripped the natural waterproofing from the birds' feathers.

This is the first documented case of its kind, but similar events may have gone undetected in the past, the researchers reported in a paper to be published in the online journal PLoS One on Monday, February 23.
"The problems we traditionally associate with harmful algal blooms are caused by toxins produced by the algae. In this case, it was a surfactant that removed the water-repellent properties of the feathers," said Raphael Kudela, professor of ocean sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and corresponding author of the paper.
Although this red tide bloom was nontoxic, it was very harmful to the affected birds, which included grebes, loons, northern fulmars, and surf scoters. Live birds found stranded on beaches around Monterey Bay were starving and severely hypothermic, having lost the insulation normally provided by their waterproof plumage. A total of 550 birds were stranded alive and 207 were found dead during this event.
Kudela teamed up with researchers from the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML)--all members of the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS)--to investigate the mass stranding, which occurred at the same time as the Cosco Busan oil spill in San Francisco Bay and an ongoing controversy over aerial spraying on the Central Coast to control the light brown apple moth.
"There were a lot of questions at the time about whether the stranding was related to those events, and we were able to eliminate those possibilities," Kudela said.
The dominant species in the red tide was a type of dinoflagellate known by the scientific name Akashiwo sanguinea, which has caused red tides in the past without harmful effects on wildlife. Kudela said the problems in 2007 resulted from the unusual combination of a large red tide late in the year, when large numbers of migrating birds had arrived in the area, plus big waves that churned up the water.
An algal protein produced the slimy foam that fouled the birds' feathers. Its effects were similar to those of soap and other surfactants that are used in detergents to dissolve grease. Wave action contributed to the problem by breaking up the cells of dying algae and churning the dissolved protein into the thick foam that was seen along the shoreline and floating on the surface of the water.
"We grew the algae in the lab, and when we shook it up it produced the same foam," Kudela said. "The waves act like a blender, churning up the cells and the protein."
These kinds of events may occur more often in the future, he said. The researchers noted that the frequency, size, and duration of red tides have increased substantially within Monterey Bay since 2004, and similar increases are occurring elsewhere in the world. These changes are probably due in part to the effects of climate change on surface water temperatures, Kudela said.
"Starting in 2004, we have had big red tides with greater frequency than in the past," he said. "Although 2007 was the first time we saw an impact on birds, the conditions are there for the same thing to happen the next time we have that combination of red tide, birds, and big storm waves."
The authors of the PLoS One paper include David Jessup and Melissa Miller at the CDFG Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center in Santa Cruz; John Ryan and Heather Kerkering at MBARI; Hannah Nevins at CDFG and MLML; Abdou Mekebri and David Crane at the CDFG Water Pollution Control Laboratory; and Kudela and Tyler Johnson at UCSC.
This research was partially funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through the Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful Algal Blooms (MERHAB) program. MERHAB funds the California Program for Regional Enhanced Monitoring of Phycotoxins, which provided support for this research.
Adapted from materials provided by University of California - Santa Cruz.

Plankton study helps forecast toxic tides

The coastal ocean can be likened to a parfait of enormous proportions. Rather than being homogeneous, it’s a layered affair of water, nutrients and organisms.
Among the layers are those that contain large concentrations of plankton. These layers are usually just a few yards below the surface, only a few feet thick but potentially miles long. They serve as ecological hot spots, providing food for other creatures. But they can also be the scene of huge algal blooms that cause toxic red tides.
Just how those plankton layers form has been unclear. Now in a paper in Science, William M. Durham and Roman Stocker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and John O. Kessler of the University of Arizona have shown that plankton’s swimming and shape play a role.
Stocker, who studies the large-scale consequences of the motility of plankton, said that the single-celled organisms tended to swim upward during the day and down at night. If the water is still, they just go straight up and down.
But ocean currents set up layers of faster- and slower-moving water. At the boundary between two layers, shear forces occur that act on the plankton, causing them to swim in an inclined direction and, if the forces are strong enough, making them tumble and spin. Because they are no longer swimming upward, the tumbling plankton become trapped at this boundary, joined by more and more plankton as they swim up into the zone. The findings should help in efforts to forecast red tides, Stocker said.
``It points oceanographers in the right direction in terms of what they should measure to predict these things,” Stocker said. ``They need to measure vertical shear, and measure something about cell morphology.”— New York Times News Service

Predicting Red Tide: How Thin Layers Of Tiny Organisms Form At Sea

Not far beneath the ocean's surface, tiny phytoplankton swimming upward in a daily commute toward morning light sometimes encounter the watery equivalent of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone: a sharp variation in marine currents that traps billions of these single-celled organisms and sends them tumbling until a shift in wind or tide alters the currents and sets them free.Scientists are aware of these thin layers of single-celled creatures and their enormous ecological ramifications, but until now, they knew little about the mechanisms responsible for their formation.The explanation by researchers in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of how these common, startlingly dense layers of photosynthetic phytoplankton form, moves the scientific community a step closer to being able to predict harmful algal blooms, a well-known example of which is red tide. The work also opens new perspectives on other phenomena, like predatory feeding by larger organisms at these ecological hotspots."Phytoplankton are incredibly small. You would have to stack about 10 back to back to equal the width of a single human hair," said PhD student William Durham, co-author on a paper appearing in the Feb. 20 issue of Science. "But despite their small size, they play an outsized role in the environment: they form the base of the marine food web and cumulatively produce half the world's oxygen. Many species can swim, but this fact is often neglected by researchers because phytoplankton are slow compared to ocean currents. However, we have shown that their motility can play a crucial role by concentrating them into dense assemblages, known as thin layers."In the Science paper, Durham, Professor Roman Stocker and University of Arizona physics Professor John Kessler explain how adjacent layers of water moving at different speeds produce a "shear" flow that traps the phytoplankton as they swim into it. These layers form in the top 50 meters of the ocean and can be anywhere from a few centimeters to a couple of meters thick, span several kilometers horizontally and last hours, days or weeks."Our research pinpoints a mechanism for the formation of these thin layers of phytoplankton, which are analogous to watering holes in a savanna — localized areas of concentrated resources that draw a wide range of organisms and thus play a disproportionate role in the ecological landscape," said Stocker, the Doherty Assistant Professor of Ocean Utilization at MIT.Because motile phytoplankton have different morphologies and swimming abilities, one species may be able to swim through a layer of shear that will capture another. This means that each species could be trapped in a different level of shear, creating a sort of oceanic layered-cake effect, a boon for zooplankton or young fish that feed on specific species.And when a toxic species of phytoplankton gets trapped in a thin layer, that layer can spawn a harmful algal bloom — an explosion in the population of toxic phytoplankton that sickens or kills the larger animals that ingest the cells. Harmful algal blooms are a major source of social and economic concern, particularly near coastal areas, because they are becoming more frequent and cause billions of dollars in annual losses to fishing and recreational industries worldwide.In a perspective piece accompanying the paper in Science, scientist Daniel Grünbaum of the University of Washington writes: "The authors demonstrate a sort of Peter Principle for algae migrating in shear: cells swim up until they reach their level of instability. At this critical shear level, cells can swim in, but they cannot swim out. The resulting aggregation, in what is arguably an unfavorable microenvironment, may have widespread consequences, as harmful blooms of toxic algae often take the form of thin layers."Using video-microscopy, Durham and Stocker were able to track the movements of individual cells as they become trapped in the layers of shear. They also modeled the movements of the swimming cells mathematically and proved that they cannot escape these layers. Once trapped, they're at the mercy of the flow, and must wait for the shear to decrease before they can swim out and exit the Twilight Zone.This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the MIT Earth Systems Initiative.Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

RED TIDE - CANADA: (ST. LAWRENCE ESTUARY)

A toxic algal bloom, also known as red tide, some 600 square kilometers [232 square miles] in size, developed early August [2008] in the St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE), Quebec, Canada, and resulted in an unprecedented faunal mortality event in the SLE. _Alexandrium tamarense_, a toxic dinoflagellate, naturally present in the SLE and Gulf of St. Lawrence can bloom when temperature rises and salinity decreases in surface waters as a result of increased freshwater runoff in the St. Lawrence River and coastal tributaries. _Alexandrium tamarense_ produces saxitoxin that affects the nervous system of fish, birds, and mammals and can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) following consumption of toxin-contaminated organisms.At the end of July and in early August [2008] heavy precipitation, warm temperatures and calm surface waters favored the blooming of the dinoflagellate at the mouth of the Saquenay River. On 8 Aug 2008 about 100 dead birds (8 different species) were 1st observed by Parks Canada staff near Tadoussac at the confluence of the Saquenay River and St. Lawrence Estuary. As the bloom drifted towards the south shore of the St. Lawrence Estuary and moved eastward with the Gaspe current, numerous dead fish, birds, whales and seals were observed floating dead or stranded dead on shore. The bloom dissipated due to strong winds during the week of 18 Aug 2008 as it reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence.During the toxic algal bloom the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) closed all the shellfish harvesting areas in the affected zone to protect public health. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) monitors various shellfish sites in the SLE and advises closure when levels of toxin in shellfish exceed the accepted norm. As a precaution the CFIA and Health Canada advised the public against eating the liver and viscera of fish and invertebrates caught in the SLE during the red tide event and advised against eating the viscera of waterfowl hunted this fall. Saxitoxin accumulates in the digestive system of affected organisms but not in the flesh. Shellfish harvesting sites will open to the public when monitoring indicates consumption is safe, some sites have opened already.

Bacteria Gang Up On Algae, Quashing Red Tide

Cells of the dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedrum, collected at seaduring a bloom in the summer of 2005, shows reddish areas signifyingnatural chlorophyll fluorescence, blue areas revealing DNA and green"dots" marking the cells of RCA cluster, bacteria implicated as a redtide killer. (Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC SanDiego)ScienceDaily (May 6, 2008) - Researchers at Scripps Institution ofOceanography at UC San Diego have identified a potential "red tidekiller." Red tides and related phenomena in which microscopic algaeaccumulate rapidly in dense concentrations have been on the rise inrecent years, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in worldwidelosses to fisheries and beach tourism activities. Despite theirwide-ranging impacts, such phenomena, more broadly referred to as"harmful algal blooms," remain unpredictable in not only where theyappear, but how long they persist.New research at Scripps has identified a little-understood but commonmarine microbe as a red tide killer, and implicates the microbe in thetermination of a red tide in Southern California waters in the summer of2005.While not all algal outbreaks are harmful, some blooms carry toxins thathave been known to threaten marine ecosystems and even kill marinemammals, fish and birds.Using a series of new approaches, Scripps Oceanography's Xavier Mayaliinvestigated the inner workings of a bloom of dinoflagellates,single-celled plankton, known by the species name Lingulodiniumpolyedrum. The techniques revealed that so-called Roseobacter-CladeAffiliated ("RCA cluster") bacteria--several at a time--attackedindividual dinoflagellate by attaching directly to the plankton's cells,slowing their swimming speed and eventually killing them.Using DNA evidence, Mayali matched the identity of the RCA bacterium inrecords of algal blooms around the world.In fact, it turns out that RCA bacteria are present in temperate andpolar waters worldwide. Mayali's novel way of cultivating theseorganisms has now opened up a new world of inquiry to understand theecological roles of these organisms. The first outcome of thisachievement is the recognition of the bacterium's potential in killingred-tide organisms."It's possible that bacteria of this type play an important role interminating algal blooms and regulating algal bloom dynamics intemperate marine waters all over the world," said Mayali.The research study, which was coauthored by Scripps Professors PeterFranks and Farooq Azam, is published in the May 1 edition of the journalApplied and Environmental Microbiology."Our understanding of harmful algal blooms and red tides has been fairlyprimitive. For the most part we don't know how they start, for example,"said Franks, a professor of biological oceanography in the IntegrativeOceanography Division at Scripps. "From a practical point of view, ifthese RCA bacteria really do kill dinoflagellates and potentially otherharmful algae that form dense blooms, down the road there may be apossibility of using them to mitigate their harmful effects."The researchers based their results on experiments conducted withsamples of a red tide collected off the Scripps Pier in 2005. BecauseRCA bacteria will not grow under traditional laboratory methods, Mayalideveloped his own techniques for identifying and tracking RCA throughhighly delicate "micromanipulation" processes involving washing andtesting individual cells of Lingulodinium. He used molecular fluorescenttags to follow the bacteria's numbers, eventually matching its DNAsignature and sealing its identity."The work in the laboratory showed that the bacterium has to attachdirectly to the dinoflagellate to kill it," said Mayali, "and we foundsimilar dynamics in the natural bloom."Franks said he found it a bizarre concept of scale that Lingulodiniumdinoflagellates, which at 25 to 30 microns in diameter are known to swimthrough the ocean with long flagella, or appendages, are attacked bybacteria that are about one micron in size and can't swim."It's somewhat shocking to think of something like three chipmunksattaching themselves to an elephant and taking it down," said Franks.While the RCA cluster's role in the marine ecosystem is not known, Azam,a distinguished professor of marine microbiology in the Marine BiologyResearch Division at Scripps, said harmful algal blooms are an importantproblem and consideration must be given to the fact that red tidedinoflagellates don't exist in isolation of other parts of the marinefood web. Bacteria and other parts of the "microbial loop" feed on theorganic matter released by the dinoflagellates and in turn thedinoflagellates are known to feed on other cells (including bacteria)when their nutrients run out.Dinoflagellate interactions with highly abundant and genetically diversebacteria in the sea have the potential to both enhance and suppressbloom intensity--but this important subject is only beginning to beexplored."The newly identified role of RCA cluster is a good illustration of theneed to understand the multifarious mechanisms by which microbesinfluence the functioning of the marine ecosystems," Azam said."This type of discovery is helping us understand algal bloom dynamicsand the interactions among the components of planktonic ecosystems inways that we'd imagined but previously lacked evidence," said Franks.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's ECOHAB (Ecology ofHarmful Algal Blooms) program funded the research.Adapted from materials provided by University of California - San Diego,via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of thefollowing formats: University of California - San Diego (2008, May 6). Red Tide KillerIdentified: Bacteria Gang Up On Algae, Quashing Red Tide Blooms.ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 7, 2008, fromhttp://www.sciencedaily.com-/releases/2008/05/080501125429.htm

Algae bloom causes problems for beachgoers

The effects of a red tide that gave many beachgoers grief during the weekend continue. A red tide algae bloom near Bay County is probably what is causing local beachgoers problems as the wind carries it, said Sherman Wilhelm with the state Department of Consumer and Agricultural Services Division of Aquaculture. While it is likely getting airborne, the red tide found in the gulf near Bay County does not seem to be spreading far in the water, he said. The most recent water sampling results from last Friday show no evidence of red tide in the water in Walton or Okaloosa counties. "(The Bay County red tide) seems to be isolated," he said. Red tide is a toxic algae bloom that can kill fish and cause respiratory irritation, such as burning in the nose and throat, in humans. The scientific name for the organism is Karenia brevis. The red tide is not thought to cause any lasting health problems in most people, but it can be an annoyance for many.

Minnows exposed to red tide died quickly

Minnows exposed to samples of red tide from waters in southeastern Virginia and the lower Chesapeake Bay died within hours, scientists report.The findings are the first indication the burgundy-hued algae blooms could cause serious aquatic harm.Scientists stressed Thursday that the widespread algae blooms, which smell of rotten eggs, are not harmful to humans. Still, state health and environmental officials caution against swimming through the discolored waters.At Old Dominion University, 12 sheepshead minnows were put into a lab tank filled with algae species thought to be responsible for the red tide. The algae came from the lower James River, at the mouth of the Nansemond River in Suffolk.Within hours, the fish died — one after 37 minutes, said Margaret Mulholland, an ODU associate professor and expert in harmful algae blooms.The algae species, called Cochlodinium polykrikoides, appeared to secrete a mucous that clogged fish gills and killed the 2-week-old juveniles.Over the past 30 years, algae blooms have become common occurrences in the Chesapeake Bay, the result of summer heat, spring rains and excessive nutrient pollution. It is the bay's No. 1 pollutant.Too much nitrogen and phosphorus are entering the bay from sewage plants, lawn fertilizers, and other sources in the bay's vast watershed.Mulholland and a team of scientists and students on Thursday sampled more algae blooms in Hampton Roads. Chris Gobler, a scientist from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, joined the scientists to compare blooms here to those off Long Island.A similar algae species has begun to crop up each summer for the past three or four years in coastal New York, he said. Lab tests involving the New York red tide also found that juvenile fish routinely died when exposed to dense concentrations of the algae.Roger Everton, a water quality specialist with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, said new reports of blooms have begun to taper off the past week.

Secrets Of Red Tide Revealed

In work that could one day help prevent millions of dollars in economic losses for seaside communities, MIT chemists have demonstrated how tiny marine organisms likely produce the red tide toxin that periodically shuts down U.S. beaches and shellfish beds.In the Aug. 31 cover story of Science, the MIT team describes an elegant method for synthesizing the lethal components of red tides. The researchers believe their method approximates the synthesis used by algae, a reaction that chemists have tried for decades to replicate, without success.Understanding how and why red tides occur could help scientists figure out how to prevent the blooms, which cause significant ecological and economic damage. The New England shellfish industry, for example, lost tens of millions of dollars during a 2005 outbreak, and red tide killed 30 endangered manatees off the coast of Florida this spring.The discovery by MIT Associate Professor Timothy Jamison and graduate student Ivan Vilotijevic not only could shed light on how algae known as dinoflagellates generate red tides, but could also help speed up efforts to develop cystic fibrosis drugs from a compound closely related to the toxin. Red tides, also known as algal blooms, strike unpredictably and poison shellfish, making them dangerous for humans to eat. It is unknown what causes dinoflagellates to produce the red tide toxins, but it may be a defense mechanism, possibly provoked by changes in the tides, temperature shifts or other environmental stresses.One of the primary toxic components of red tide is brevetoxin, a large and complex molecule that is very difficult to synthesize.Twenty-two years ago, chemist Koji Nakanishi of Columbia University proposed a cascade, or series of chemical steps, that dinoflagellates could use to produce brevetoxin and other red tide toxins. However, chemists have been unable to demonstrate such a cascade in the laboratory, and many came to believe that the "Nakanishi Hypothesis" would never be proven."A lot of people thought that this type of cascade may be impossible," said Jamison. "Because Nakanishi's hypothesis accounts for so much of the complexity in these toxins, it makes a lot of sense, but there hasn't really been any evidence for it since it was first proposed."Jamison and Vilotijevic's work offers the first evidence that Nakanishi's hypothesis is feasible. Their work could also help accelerate drug discovery efforts. Brevenal, another dinoflagellate product related to the red tide toxins, has shown potential as a powerful treatment for cystic fibrosis (CF). It can also protect against the effects of the toxins."Now that we can make these complex molecules quickly, we can hopefully facilitate the search for even better protective agents and even more effective CF therapies," said Jamison.Until now, synthesizing just a few milligrams of red tide toxin or related compounds, using a non-cascade method, required dozens of person-years of effort.The new synthesis depends on two critical factors-giving the reaction a jump start and conducting the reaction in water.Many red tide toxins possess a long chain of six-membered rings. However, the starting materials for the cascades, epoxy alcohols, tend to form five-membered rings. To overcome that, the researchers attached a "template" six-membered ring to one end of the epoxy alcohol. That simple step effectively launches the cascade of reactions that leads to the toxin chain, known as a ladder polyether."The trick is to give it a little push in the right direction and get it running smoothly," said Jamison.The researchers speculate that in dinoflagellates, the initial jump start is provided by an enzyme instead of a template.Conducting the reaction in water is also key to a successful synthesis. Water is normally considered a poor solvent for organic reactions, so most laboratory reactions are performed in organic solvents. However, when Vilotijevic introduced water into the reaction, he noticed that it proceeded much more quickly and selectively.Although it could be a coincidence that these cascades work best in water and that dinoflagellates are marine organisms, water may nevertheless be directly involved in the biosynthesis of the toxins or emulating an important part of it, said Jamison. Because of this result, the researchers now believe that organic chemists should routinely try certain reactions in water as well as organic solvents.The research was funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Merck Research Laboratories, Boehringer Ingelheim, and MIT."This is an elegant piece of work with multiple levels of impact," said John Schwab, who manages organic chemistry research for the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. "Not only will it allow chemists to synthesize this important class of complex molecules much more easily, but it also provides key insights into how nature may make these same molecules. This is terrific bang for the taxpayers' buck!" Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Red tide paralyzing pelicans

COLLIER COUNTY: Officials with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida
say dozens of pelicans in Naples are being poisoned by red tide. The
organism has caused some of the birds to become so paralyzed, they
cannot stand up or even blink.

Joanna Fitzgerald, with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, says
she and her colleagues are taking three to five pelicans to the
group's rehab center every day. Some are hurt from fishing hooks and
fishing line, but Fitzgerald says red tide poisoning is becoming a
serious problem.

Fitzgerald explained one of the pelicans she brought into the rehab
center two weeks ago was so weak, he could not stand and would not
eat. Though the bird's appetite has since returned, walking is still
a challenge.

She says the pelican is just one of the latest victims of red tide -
an algae bloom plaguing the Gulf of Mexico.

"They're very weak, they're disoriented, they're wobbly - it's
almost like they're drunk," said Fitzgerald.

Other pelicans are so weak, they can't even lift their head or their
wings.

"They're so paralyzed they can't even blink. So their eyes are stuck
open," said Fitzgerald.

The Sceviour family spotted one sick pelican, trapped him with a
garbage can, and called the Conservancy for help.

"He looked kind of slow or sick and was wandering along the street
which is unnatural," said part-time Naples resident William
Sceviour.

Conservancy volunteer Kelsey Worcester says they rely on calls from
the community to find the sick pelicans and give them the treatment
they need.

"Pelicans are big birds. You can tell when they're not feeling well
because they don't struggle as much," said Worcester. "It's really
sad because you realize what these birds are going through."

Fitzgerald says a large number of the pelicans are coming in from
the Naples Pier. Not only is the pier area a haven for dangerous
fishing line, it's also been hit hard by red tide.

"Two Sundays ago, we had five come in from the pier and every one of
them died," said Fitzgerald.

Those pelicans were sent to a state lab to be tested for red tide.

Of the pelicans Conservancy officials treat, about 80-percent
survive - but only with weeks of fluids, food, and a lot of care.

Once they're released back into the wild, there is no guarantee they
won't be poisoned by red tide all over again.

If you see a sick pelican, Fitzgerald says the best thing to do is
to trap it with a bin or a garbage can and bring it to the
Conservancy's rehab center.

Because there are so many sick pelicans, there is not enough staff
to go around and pick them up.