Coastal Conversation: Harmful algal bloom forecasting in Alaska

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1. 0:05This is the NOAA Ocean Podcast, I'm your host, Alison Burrell.
2. 0:10In this special Coastal Conversation episode, we're turning things over to our guest host, Max Brown,
3. 0:17from the National Ocean Services, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, or NCOS.
4. 0:24NCOS plays a key role in supporting our nation's coastal stewardship
5. 0:28and resource management by providing the scientific information necessary to protect environmental resources
6. 0:34and safeguard public health.
7. 0:37One example is the production of ecological forecasts for harmful algal blooms.
8. 0:42A harmful algal bloom occurs when colonies of algae or simple plants that live in both marine
9. 0:48and freshwater grow out of control and produce toxins that can affect fish, shellfish,
10. 0:54marine mammals, birds and even humans.
11. 0:56NOAA's forecasting tools predict the location and severity of these blooms and help environmental managers
12. 1:03in local communities to take early steps to minimize impacts, especially on seafood and tourism.
13. 1:10In this episode, you'll hear from Casey Jo Wright,
14. 1:13an environmental technician from the Kodiak Area Native Association,
15. 1:17and Steve Kibler, an oceanographer from the National Ocean Service,
16. 1:21about the effects of harmful algal blooms on shellfish in Alaska,
17. 1:25which a food staple in many Indigenous Alaskan communities.
18. 1:30Now let's dive in.
19. 1:35The Kodiak Archipelago is a group of more than 30 islands covered in forest and glaciers
20. 1:40on the northwestern edge of the Gulf of Alaska.
21. 1:43For thousands of years, people are known to have lived on these islands fishing and hunting.
22. 1:49These activities continue to this day.
23. 1:52Harvested shellfish are an important part of culture, diet, and economy of the communities across Kodiak,
24. 1:58particularly among the indigenous peoples.
25. 2:01But according to the state public health division,
26. 2:04Alaska has one of the highest rates of paralytic shellfish poisoning in the US.
27. 2:09And within Alaska, Kodiak has the highest rate of poisoning.
28. 2:13Paralytic shellfish poison is a naturally occurring marine biotoxin that is produced by certain species
29. 2:19of microscopic algae.
30. 2:20Shellfish that eat these algae can retain the toxin, making it harmful to people who consume the shellfish.
31. 2:27Scientists use the term harmful algal bloom to describe the occurrence of toxic algal species
32. 2:33in high enough concentrations to harm people and the environment.
33. 2:37The human illness is caused by these blooms, though rare, can be debilitating or even fatal.
34. 2:43NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science,
35. 2:46or NCOS, is working to solve this problem by developing a seasonal forecast
36. 2:51that can predict harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Alaska.
37. 2:56NCOS leads NOAA's efforts to advance the scientific understanding and ability to detect, monitor, assess,
38. 3:03and predict bloom events as directed by Congress in the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research
39. 3:09and Control Act of 1998.
40. 3:12I'm Max Brown, and in this episode,
41. 3:14we will learn how NCOS is working with the Kodiak Area Native Association,
42. 3:19or CANA, and the Alutek Pride Marine Institute to provide shellfish harvesters with an early warning system
43. 3:26or forecast of when and where toxins may be present.
44. 3:38Let's have a coastal conversation.
45. 3:44Outbreaks of paralytic shellfish poisoning,
46. 3:47or PSP, are specifically caused by neurotoxins produced by a toxic,
47. 3:52single-celled species of marine algae known as Alexandrium catanella.
48. 3:58Shellfish like clams, mussels, and crabs eat microscopic algae including Alexandrium.
49. 4:05During a bloom of Alexandrium, the concentrations of neurotoxins can reach dangerous levels in the tissues
50. 4:12of these shellfish, making them unsafe to eat.
51. 4:15In many indigenous communities on the Alaskan coast,
52. 4:19shellfish have traditionally made up a significant portion of people's diets.
53. 4:24CANA is a tribal health and social services organization
54. 4:27serving Alaska native and American Indian people in the cognac region with many services also available
55. 4:34to the wider community.
56. 4:36They have been working to monitor and track PSP in the area.
57. 4:40Casey Jo Wright is an environmental technician working with CANA.
58. 4:43We spoke to them near Kodiak Island where they help monitor alexandrium.
59. 4:48So, the native people of Kodiak, the Alutek, Supiak people,
60. 4:53have lived on this island for almost 10 ,000 years.
61. 4:57And so, until now, they have been able to rely on traditional knowledge of when to harvest
62. 5:03and those indigenous ways of knowing are passed down generation to generation and accumulated
63. 5:11and really enhanced with each person.
64. 5:16Alexandria, the organism that causes PSP, is extremely sensitive to temperature changes.
65. 5:23It blooms historically during summer months, however,
66. 5:27rising temperatures year-round have increased the likelihood of PSP in the spring and fall as well.
67. 5:34There are people that previously have harvested their whole lives,
68. 5:38who grew up harvesting, and now are in their later years and won't do it anymore because of the sphere
69. 5:46of it, because it's the toxin is showing up earlier in the spring and later in the fall
70. 5:54and whereas this was a more wintertime source of subsistence
71. 6:01for the communities on our island,
72. 6:05it also in the colder months of spring and fall, people were not,
73. 6:11they were not expecting based on years of traditional knowledge for it to show up.
74. 6:18So our goal is not to replace this traditional knowledge,
75. 6:23but to adapt with it to a change of ecosystem
76. 6:29and support the gaps where we can.
77. 6:34Intertwined with the cultural tradition of shellfish harvesting is the role that shellfish harvesting plays
78. 6:40in providing a degree of economic independence for some communities.
79. 6:44It's a difficult process to get food and groceries out to the villages.
80. 6:51They don't always have like their pick up what's available and there may be surcharges
81. 6:56for the extra distance that is gone or supplies needed immediately might have
82. 7:04to be flown out and paid with extra fees.
83. 7:08So there's the economic resilience
84. 7:11of these communities is enhanced by partaking
85. 7:19in their traditions of subsistence, of being in the cycle with the land and the ocean.
86. 7:26One way to prevent outbreaks of PSP is to test samples from shellfish in a laboratory to determine
87. 7:32if PSP toxins are present.
88. 7:35Another method to protect against PSPs is to check the coastal waters near shellfish for Alexandrium cells.
89. 7:42This can be done using a microscope or by checking to see if Alexandrium's DNA is present in water samples.
90. 7:50Our part at Cana is doing a lot of the monitoring along the Kodiak Road system
91. 7:56while also accepting samples from the villages and any other subsistence harvesters and then
92. 8:03we also will be doing multiple hab cell samplings.
93. 8:07So that will look like phytoplankton toes and whole water grabs where we're going to be taking qualitative
94. 8:14and quantitative data about the phytoplankton that are present there.
95. 8:20Now that serves as an early warning system for if alexandrium is cited in in the waters,
96. 8:29and then we'll follow that up
97. 8:32with the same week doing shellfish toxin sampling to see how much is actually
98. 8:39in the shellfish at that time of harvest.
99. 8:45Local testing and monitoring is an important tool for addressing the risk of PSP.
100. 8:51However, Alaska's coastline is longer than the lower 48 states combined.
101. 8:55Because of this lengthy coastline and the widespread distribution
102. 9:00of largely rural communities along the coast,
103. 9:03it is very difficult to effectively monitor more than a small number of shellfish beds that are harvested.
104. 9:10All of the methods for testing and monitoring require access to laboratory facilities
105. 9:15which are sparsely located in Alaska.
106. 9:18This results in an increased likelihood that people collecting and consuming shellfish could be exposed
107. 9:24to the toxins that caused PSP.
108. 9:27We spoke to Steve Kibler, an oceanographer at NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science,
109. 9:33aboard a busy NOAA research vessel.
110. 9:37Right now, the options are not great in Alaska for getting shellfish tested.
111. 9:42There are some regional locations, laboratories, that our tribal partners run,
112. 9:47that can do the testing for us.
113. 9:49The state laboratory in Anchorage,
114. 9:52The Department of Environmental Conservation can do the testing as well,
115. 9:57but it's relatively expensive and it requires collecting the shellfish,
116. 10:01sending them in to see if they're safe, and waiting for the results to come back.
117. 10:06So many times it can take almost a week before you get results back.
118. 10:09So it's not a good option if you decide to harvest to hang on to the shellfish
119. 10:14for several days before deciding to eat them.
120. 10:16NCOS currently manages several HAB forecasts throughout the country.
121. 10:21For example, in the Gulf of Maine,
122. 10:24NCOS predicts concentrations of alexandrium cells in the coastal environment,
123. 10:29producing maps that inform people when and where it is safest to harvest shellfish.
124. 10:35NCOS is aiming to use this methodology in Alaska by collecting samples of alexandrium cells in coastal waters.
125. 10:42In
126. 10:49order to develop a forecast in Alaska,
127. 10:52scientists are collecting measurements related to the life cycle of alexandrium cells.
128. 10:58These cells respond to environmental stimuli by moving through the water column.
129. 11:02When conditions are not ideal, alexandrium cells can form dormant cysts and rest until conditions improve.
130. 11:11Temperature changes have been shown to regulate this process.
131. 11:13us. For instance, when water temperatures rise in the spring,
132. 11:17Alexandrium cells can awaken and form the next bloom, potentially causing shellfish toxicity.
133. 11:24Understanding where arresting Alexandrium cells,
134. 11:27or cysts, accumulate in the sediment during the winter can help predict where they will wake up
135. 11:33to form blooms in the spring.
136. 11:35Scientists at NOAA are working with local partners to map out where Alexandrium cysts are located.
137. 11:41This information can be combined with meteorological and oceanographic data to model
138. 11:47where blooms are most likely to occur.
139. 11:50Steve explains. NOAA uses several different approaches for doing forecasts for harmful algal blooms.
140. 11:56Typically, there's first a bunch of laboratory and field work done, oftentimes for years,
141. 12:02to establish what the linkage is between changes in the environment and the regulation of blooms
142. 12:09and what makes them reproduce rapidly,
143. 12:12or what time of year that they tend to reproduce, how the toxins get into the seafood products,
144. 12:17and how long they stay there.
145. 12:19All of these can be approximated using mathematical models in a lot of environmental data.
146. 12:25So what we try to do is figure out these relationships mathematically,
147. 12:29and then use that to predict what the future is going to hold.
148. 12:32And in the short term, we're trying to come up with a seasonal forecast that will say, well,
149. 12:37next year is going to be worse or better than it was this year and then try to build on that
150. 12:42to make it a little more useful to the residents.
151. 12:44And this similar approach is used in other parts of the world,
152. 12:47in other parts of the country rather.
153. 12:50Probably the one that's run the longest is in the Gulf of Maine in the New England States.
154. 12:55We have the Gulf of Maine harmful algal bloom forecast that's been running for arguably 20 to 30 years now
155. 13:01where we have a seasonal forecast product that it says how bad this year is going to be compared
156. 13:07to last year, and then we also have a weekly nowcast that comes out during the spring and summer months
157. 13:12that gives a projection of where the blooms are going to be that particular week and how severe they're going
158. 13:17to be. Mapping the locations of Alexandrium's cyst beds and their abundance,
159. 13:22and then combining these measurements with environmental data,
160. 13:25allows scientists to forecast where the risks of PSP may be highest.
161. 13:30Over time, the models are calibrated more precisely to produce increasingly accurate predictions of
162. 13:37where blooms will occur.
163. 13:39This information can then be provided to communities, shellfish farmers, health organizations,
164. 13:45and coastal managers to avoid PSP outbreaks.
165. 13:49Last
166. 14:00spring, NOBA worked with scientists from Kana and the Allutic Pride Marine Institute to collect water quality
167. 14:07and sediment core samples at 78 sites in the Gulf of Alaska around and adjacent to the Kodiak Archipelago
168. 14:15and the Lower Kenai Peninsula.
169. 14:17This was the first step in creating a regional HAB forecast in Alaska.
170. 14:22Before the forecast is fully operational, more data will need to be collected.
171. 14:27Well, the current effort that we have underway now is a five-year project.
172. 14:32What we're trying to do is put the building blocks together to produce a forecast,
173. 14:37to try to do a small-scale forecast and to see how that develops,
174. 14:41to come up with some effective communication methods to provide lots of forecasting information
175. 14:47to the individual communities around the region, and to try to build toward larger forecasts for the future.
176. 14:54When completed, the Gulf of Alaska hab forecast would regionally predict which years are more likely
177. 15:01to have high risks for shellfish harvesting in places like Kodiak.
178. 15:06Harmful algal blooms are a naturally occurring phenomenon,
179. 15:09but they are likely to increase in frequency across the Alaskan coast due to rising ocean temperatures.
180. 15:16NOAA is proudly working with its local partners to inform coastal communities of the changing risks of PSP
181. 15:23in their shellfish harvest.
182. 15:29Thanks to Max Brown for guiding this coastal conversation.
183. 15:33I'm Allison Burrell with the NOAA Ocean Podcast.
184. 15:36For helpful resources related to this episode,
185. 15:39or to check out all our episodes, please visit oceanservice .noaa .gov forward slash podcast.
186. 15:47You can also subscribe to the NOAA Ocean Podcast at this link or on your favorite podcast platform.
187. 15:53Thanks for listening.
188. 15:55Let's keep making waves.