Page 17: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2006)

Red Tide Models,Forecasts

Expanded in Gulf of Maine

A new observation and modeling pro- gram focused on the southern Gulf of

Maine and adjacent New England shelf waters could aid policy makers in deciding whether or not to re-open, develop, and manage offshore shellfish beds with poten- tial sustained harvesting value of more than $50 million per year. These areas are presently closed to the harvest of certain species of shellfish due to the presence of red tide toxins. Researchers at the Woods

Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and colleagues from seven other universi- ties or agencies began the five-year Gulf of

Maine Toxicity program, or GOMTOX, on September 1. The $7.5 million dollar program is funded by a grant from the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration's (NOAA) National Ocean

Service, Center for Sponsored Coastal

Ocean Research (NOS/CSCOR) through the ECOHAB program. The new research effort expands past studies in the Gulf of

Maine and builds on data collected during the historic 2005 red tide, which led to clo- sure of both nearshore shellfish beds and offshore beds in federal waters out to

Georges Bank. The toxicity also extended for the first time to the islands of Martha's

Vineyard and Nantucket. The Gulf of

Maine (GoM) and its adjacent southern

New England shelf is a vast region with extensive shellfish resources, large portions of which are frequently contaminated with paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins produced by the dinoflagellate

Alexandrium fundyense. GOMTOX will utilize a combination of large-and small- scale survey cruises, autonomous gliders, moored instruments and traps, drifters, satellite imagery and numerical models.

Researchers will incorporate field obser- vations into a suite of numerical models of the region for hindcasting and forecasting applications for both near shore and off- shore shellfish resources. In addition to

WHOI researchers, scientists participating in GOMTOX represent Canada's

Department of Fisheries and Oceans,

NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science

Center, the Canadian National Research

Council, the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration, University of Maine,

University of Massachusetts, and the

Stellwagen Bank National Marine

Sanctuary. www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 17

Science news

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