UMaine researchers develop models to forecast lethal ASP toxin movement in waterways
University of Maine researchers will develop a tool for predicting how biotoxins released by algal blooms that can cause public health issues travel through estuarine and coastal waters.
The focus of the UMaine-led effort pertains to marine harmful algal blooms of the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia that causes medical problems through the production of the toxin domoic acid. The illness it causes is called Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP), which can lead to deadly neurological and gastrointestinal symptoms in people. When the Maine Department of Marine Resources (MEDMR) finds signs of the toxin in shellfish, it closes the regional area where they were found, forbidding any harvesting. MEDMR reopens the area after conducting additional tests, which can last a couple of days or longer and, if extensive, adversely affect the livelihoods of fishermen and aquaculture farmers.
Lauren Ross from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sean Smith from the School of Earth and Climate Sciences, and Sean Birkel from the Climate Change Institute at UMaine will collaborate with scientists from the Maine Department of Marine Resources, U.S. Geological Survey and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, to quantify and simulate conditions associated with Pseudo-nitzschia blooms. The study area includes eight connected estuaries and their watersheds flowing into Frenchman and Blue Hill bays surrounding Mount Desert Island.
The research is designed with stakeholder input to provide better predictions for the blooms and management responses based on better knowledge of factors related to the watersheds and the estuaries they drain into. Science communication will be a major component of their three-year project, with the intention of adapting outcomes from their research into management decision tools to guide coastal monitoring activities, pinpoint public health risks pertaining to ASP, and prompt shorter closures to shellfish harvesting with smaller, more precise boundaries.
Read the full story from University of Maine here.