Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful
Algal Blooms
( MERHAB)
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 is assisting coastal states respond to the growing threat
of HAB impacts 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. The first MERHAB competition held in 2002 produced two
regional monitoring projects that will enhance State monitoring and
response capabilities for red tide in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and
freshwater toxic algae in the lower Great Lakes. Five additional projects
are testing promising new technologies for routine monitoring use
by coastal managers in Texas, Florida, and Virginia.
PROGRESS IN MITIGATING HAB IMPACTS
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 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.
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.
CSCOR HAB EVENT RESPONSE SUPPORTS RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT
The co-location of the ECOHAB and MERHAB research programs
within CSCOR creates an opportunity to assist coastal managers in there
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, makes 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 2001, MERHAB involved HAB community members in support of State
responses to HAB-related mortalities of threatened or endangered species
in California and Florida. 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.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
CSCOR continues to expand the successful MERHAB concept to additional
impacted coastal communities. New regional and target research projects
are slated to start in 2004, pending full allocation of Congressional
appropriations. CSCOR 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.
MERHAB Event Response Program Description
