NOAA Awards More Than $100,000 To Woods Hole Researchers To Study Economics Of Toxic Shellfish Poisoning In The Gulf Of Maine

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts will use an $113,859 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to conduct research examining the economic impacts of harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Maine and the value of bloom predictions. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The grant comes from the NOAA Ocean Service’s Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB) program. It will support research to develop a framework for estimating the economic impacts of Alexandrium bloom events in the Gulf of Maine. Alexandrium is the cause of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning in northeast US coastal waters. PSP is a potentially fatal neurological disorder caused by the human ingestion of shellfish that have accumulated toxins after feeding on Alexandrium dinoflagellates. State and local managers monitor Alexandrium levels aggressively to insure seafood safety. WHOI investigators will document the ways in which commercial shell fishers, processors, customers and resource managers respond to harmful algal blooms in order to evaluate the economic benefits of predicting such events.

“Harmful algal blooms are a serious economic and public health problem all over the world, it is imperative that we understand the costs,” 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 local initiatives like those run by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.”

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, independent, not-for-profit corporation dedicated to research and higher education at the frontiers of ocean science. Its primary mission is to develop and effectively communicate a fundamental understanding of the processes and characteristics governing how the oceans function and how they interact with the Earth as a whole. It is the goal of the Institution to be a world leader in advancing and communicating a basic understanding of the oceans and their decisive role in addressing global questions.

Each year, NOAA Ocean Service’s Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research 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.