Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research (CSCOR)

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NOAA AWARDS MORE THAN $99,000 TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE TO STUDY TOXIC RED TIDE IN THE GULF OF MAINE

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded the University of Maine’s School of Marine Science a $99,272 grant to fund research that will identify links between ocean changes and toxic red tide events in the Gulf of Maine. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The NOAA grant will allow the University of Maine researchers to examine oceanographic, meteorological and shellfish toxicity data records to identify and quantify links between oceanic variability and toxic red tide events in the Gulf of Maine, known as Alexandrium. The results will advance the capability to predict toxic Alexandrium blooms and shellfish toxicity along Maine’s coast. Alexandrium is the cause of paralytic shellfish poisoning in northeast U.S. coastal waters.

“Harmful algal blooms are a serious economic and public health problem all over the world, so it is imperative that we understand the environmental conditions that set the stage for toxic shellfish events,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “NOAA and the Bush Administration are working to improve the understanding of our environment and to strengthen regional initiatives like those conducted by the University of Maine.”

The grant is part of the Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms program, known as ECOHAB, managed by the NOAA Ocean Service, National Center for Coastal Ocean Science.

ECOHAB seeks to produce state-of-the-art detection methodologies for harmful algal blooms and their toxins, understand the causes and dynamics of the events, develop forecasts of their growth, transport and toxicity, and predict and ameliorate impacts on higher trophic levels and humans.

Each year, NOAA’s CSCOR/Coastal Ocean Program awards approximately $30 million in grants to members of the academic, state and scientific communities to assist NOAA in fulfilling its mission to study our coastal oceans in order to predict environmental change, manage ocean resources, protect life and property, and provide decision makers with reliable and timely scientific information. NOAA-sponsored competitive research programs such as ECOHAB demonstrate NOAA's commitment to these basic responsibilities of science and service to the nation for the past 34 years.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources.

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NOAA

NOAA Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB)

University of Maine’s School of Marine Science