Background Articles

Charles Menadelook conducted carcass surveys in the Norton Sound Region to monitor harmful algal blooms and bird flu, aiming to protect subsistence hunters by identifying threats to regional food resources.

Blue-green algae blooms, exacerbated by climate change and nutrient runoff, are increasingly appearing in the Great Lakes, posing risks to human and environmental health.

NOAA researchers are studying the connection between sea ice retreat and harmful algal blooms in the Bering Sea, aiming to improve prediction and monitoring tools for these events that pose risks to public health and marine ecosystems.

The institute started monitoring the cyanobacteria situation at the beginning of June and will continue until the end of September.

NASA's PACE satellite, designed to study ocean biology in unprecedented detail, has been successfully launched to enhance understanding of Earth's changing climate and improve weather forecasting.

Knik Tribe data reveals high levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxin in some Alaskan subsistence shellfish harvests, with variability in toxin levels across different locations.

Algal blooms in the Liffey River threaten Dublin's drinking water due to pollution and climate change, raising concerns about the safety of fish and the future impact on water treatment.

The warming of the Arctic has caused a significant shift in the ecosystem of Great Slave Lake, with smaller diatoms replacing larger ones, potentially impacting the lake's productivity, carbon dynamics, food web, and nearby communities.

Severe Vibrio vulnificus infections in the United States are associated with warming coastal waters, with an increase in infections in the Eastern United States and an expanded geographic range.

The R/V Sikuliaq is a familiar sight in the Port of Nome. The ice-breaking research vessel is owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This year, while the vessel is out at sea it will be collecting water that could signal whether a bloom is occurring.

Knik Tribe officials have found very high levels of the toxin which causes paralytic shellfish poisoning in samples from Southern Alaska mussels and clams — but they warn that parts of some fish, including king salmon, may also contain the toxin

Such a large, sudden die-off and a lack of sea ice were a red flag for scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Last July, researchers detected high concentrations of a toxin-producing algae offshore in the Bering Strait region.

A loose raft of brown seaweed spanning about twice the width of the U.S. is inching across the Caribbean. Among annual Sargassum censuses in the Atlantic Ocean, “2018 was the record year, and we’ve had several big years since,” says Brian Lapointe, an oceanographer at Florida Atlantic University, who has studied seaweed for decades. “This is the new normal, and we’re going to have to adapt to it.”

Harmful algal blooms will become a more common feature of a warming Arctic. Last summer, a massive bloom was detected off the coast of Western Alaska, almost by chance, when scientists sailing through the Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea found worryingly high levels of Alexandrium catenella.

Smoke from a Siberian wildfire may have transported enough nitrogen to parts of the Arctic Ocean to amplify a phytoplankton bloom.

A six-inch butter clam harvested on August 28 three miles north of Savoonga tested positive for saxitoxins, or paralytic shellfish poison, Norton Sound Health Corporation Environmental Coordinator Emma Pate said.The clam itself showed high levels of saxitoxin present: it had 450 micrograms of toxin per 100 gram of body tissue. The Food and Drug Administration’s safety limit is at 80 micrograms/100 g. Pate, via the SEATOR lab, on Sept. 23 issued a paralytic shellfish toxin advisory to Savoonga and Gambell.

Researchers have found a high level of potentially harmful algae in the waters near Teller, Brevig Mission, Wales, Little Diomede and Shishmaref. They are now advising that residents of those areas…

The lab tests samples from 17 communities in Southeast, as well as from tribes on Kodiak Island.

Since bottom water temperatures have been warming drastically across the Northern Bering and Chukchi Seas over the last few years, cysts are now growing locally in Arctic waters. The blooms carry toxins, but scientists aren’t yet sure what impact they will have on marine mammals.