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Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful Algal Blooms (MERHAB)
Click here for a listing of MERHAB research abstracts
Issue
Harmful
algal blooms (HABs) are occurring with increasing frequency and duration
along our shores. Nearly every coastal region is struggling to mitigate
the often devastating impacts to local economies and serious human
health threats associated with a variety of harmful algae. NCCOS' Center
for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research (CSCOR) is assisting coastal
states in response to the growing threat of HAB impacts. It is responding
to the threat by partnering with regional management and scientific
institutions through the Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful
Algal Blooms (MERHAB) Program. MERHAB projects are enhancing existing
water and shellfish monitoring programs with new technology allowing
for pro-active detection of coastal HAB events. The ultimate aim of
MERHAB is to help build sustainable regional partnerships that provide
managers with crucial information in time for critical decisions needed
to mitigate HAB impacts.
The MERHAB research program is addressing the growing national HAB threat by expanding the number of coastal regions benefiting from advancements in algal identification, detection, modeling, and prediction. Projects selected for support must successfully compete in a peer-review process that ensures high-level scientific merit and resource management relevance. MERHAB competitions in 2002 and 2004 produced regional monitoring projects that will enhance State monitoring and response capabilities for red tide in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, freshwater toxic algae in the lower Great Lakes and domoic acid along the central California coast. Eight additional projects are testing promising new technologies for routine monitoring use by coastal managers.
Approach: Research to Operations
Initial MERHAB regional efforts focused on enhancing HAB monitoring
in the Chesapeake Bay, a Florida tidal estuary, and along the Olympic
Peninsula. These initial efforts have successfully incorporated advanced
research into existing monitoring programs to help State coastal managers
mitigate the impact of HABs. The recently completed Chesapeake region
project produced new continuous, real-time tools to measure environmental
parameters in critical shallow water areas at unprecedented temporal
and spatial resolutions. These tools are part of the Maryland "Eyes
on the Bay" program and are vital to the State strategy of building
community and institution partnerships to sustain monitoring programs,
improve predictive capabilities to mitigate HABs and other water quality
concerns. 
The co-location of the Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB) program and MERHAB research programs within the Coastal Ocean Program creates an opportunity to assist coastal managers in their responsibilities to deal with outbreaks of harmful algae by providing access to the expertise and institutional support of the research community. The fleeting nature of blooms, the organisms’ unique ecological characteristics, and widely varying State response capabilities, make it critical to quickly mobilize experts to provide support like cell identification, toxin analysis, remote sensing, and sampling. Maintaining a flexible HAB response effort, coordinated with MERHAB and ECOHAB research, also expands the body of scientific knowledge related to harmful algae. Between 1998 and 2004, MERHAB involved HAB community members in support of State responses to HAB-related mortalities of threatened or endangered species in California, Florida, Maryland, and Massachusetts. Responses have generated new data and findings reported in the scientific literature and created lasting relationships between researchers and managers. Through event response, CSCOR and the HAB community strive to avoid another large-scale HAB-related incident like that which impacted the Chesapeake region in 1997. But in the event another major outbreak occurs, CSCOR maintains a role as the National Coordinator of the Federal Event Response Plan for HABs. This plan creates a formal mechanism, initiated by State request, to utilize Federal resources on HAB-related events which overwhelm State capabilities.
HAB event response activities will expand by identifying additional resources and expertise that the Federal government and its partners can provide to local communities in need.
Current Projects
Click here for a listing of MERHAB research abstracts
Accomplishments
MERHAB Projects along the Olympic Coast of Washington State are entering their final stage. Already, the regional Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom (ORHAB) project has successfully injected knowledge from current ecological and oceanographic HAB research into State and Tribal coastal management. ORHAB has allowed Washington State to anticipate the need to initiate closures of recreational and commercial shellfish harvests and retain the public trust critical to enforce current and future closures. A new State surcharge on shellfish license sales was recently dedicated to sustain the successful ORHAB collaboration and support long-term HAB monitoring. Other MERHAB research in this region nearing completion is developing rapid, cost effective, reliable, and highly sensitive toxin detection methods. This research holds promise for estimating the public health risk from chronic exposure to low levels of algal toxin, an issue of special concern to Native peoples from California to Alaska.
For more information, contact:
NOAA/NOS/NCCOS/CSCOR
Marc Suddleson
phone: 301-713-3338
e-mail: coastalocean@noaa.gov