Status: currentProject summary:
The SoundToxins project monitors phytoplankton in Puget Sound as an early warning step to protect shellfish consumers from biotoxins harmful to human health. Started by NOAA and managed by Sea Grant, we are one of almost 30 partner organizations who collect plankton samples and look for specific harmful algae.
Volunteers monitoring for toxic phytoplankton
Project summary:
The SoundToxins project monitors phytoplankton in Puget Sound as an early warning step to protect shellfish consumers from biotoxins harmful to human health. Started by NOAA and managed by Sea Grant, we are one of almost 30 partner organizations who collect plankton samples and look for specific harmful algae.
Phytoplankton are the base of marine food webs and produce 50% of the planet’s oxygen. Yet some also make biotoxins that can cause harm to people and wildlife. Their presence can shut down commercial and recreational shellfish harvest. The SoundToxins project looks for the potentially harmful phytoplankton.
Detection of harmful, microscopic algae can serve as an early warning to protect human health and reduce economic loss. SoundToxins volunteers use microscopes to identify these potentially harmful phytoplankton in seawater samples collected around Puget Sound.
PTMSC volunteers monitor four sites in northeastern Olympic Peninsula: Discovery Bay, Mystery Bay, Port Townsend Bay and Fort Worden State Park. At each site a vertical plankton sample is drawn and . water temperature and salinity data collected. Back in the lab, species are identified and recorded. This information supports the state’s shellfish safety map, updated daily by the WA Dept of Health.
Our dedicated volunteers visit each site weekly March – October and every two weeks through the winter. In our small lab, they identify phytoplankton using a Zeiss compound microscope, and prepare samples for preservation and further analysis. If they find culprit species, we notify the project immediately and they in turn contact the WA Dept. of Health. The data we collect is entered into an online database that can be accessed by state health officials to make real-time, public health decisions.
Some of the harmful phytoplankton that we look for are:
Resources:
SoundToxins – an early warning program for harmful algal blooms in Puget Sound
2960.871k
SoundToxins is a diverse partnership of shellfish farmers, fish farmers, environmental learning centers, volunteers, local health jurisdictions, colleges, and Native American tribes that was conceived and initiated by the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC), and is now codirected by Washington Sea Grant (WSG). SoundToxins has grown from four partners in 2006 to 28 partners in 2017, some of whom monitor multiple sites in Puget Sound.
SoundToxins website
SoundToxins, a diverse partnership of Washington state shellfish and finfish growers, environmental learning centers, Native tribes, and Puget Sound volunteers, is a monitoring program designed to provide early warning of harmful algal bloom events in order to minimize both human health risks and economic losses to Puget Sound fisheries.
What is a harmful algal bloom? – NOAA
Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, occur when colonies of algae — simple plants that live in the sea and freshwater — grow out of control and produce toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals and birds. The human illnesses caused by HABs, though rare, can be debilitating or even fatal.
NANOOS – harmful algal blooms
Find information about harmful algal blooms (HAB), real time data on occurrences, as well as bulletins for HAB event response.
NANOOS, the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems
The NANOOS Visualization System (NVS) provides easy access to observations, forecasts, data and visualizations.
NOAA – Phytoplankton of the Northwest US shelf ecosystem
Almost all life on Earth relies on photosynthetic organisms such as plants and algae for oxygen production. In the Northwest U.S. continental shelf ecosystem, microscopic single-celled algae known as phytoplankton are responsible for nearly all primary production.