June 20, 2015

After several relatively quiet years, a massive bloom of Pseudo-nitzchia, the diatom responsible for amnesic shellfish poisoning, has shut down several West Coast shellfish fisheries. The largest in at least a decade, this bloom is the focus of studies by the College of the Environment’s Anthony Odell of the Olympic Natural Resources Center (a unit in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences). WSG staff and investigators also have been involved in harmful algal bloom (HAB) research and outreach, including the SoundToxins Monitoring Program and several studies to help provide early warning of HABs by better understanding germination rates and developing a low-cost sensor network to detect the blooms.

For an overview of HAB research, outreach, and education at WSG, see our Harmful Algal Blooms webpage and our feature story in the spring issue of our newsletter, Sea Star.