SoundHAB: Heterosigma and other blooms North of the Border

[Nicky Haigh]

This week (July 25-31 samples) we have been seeing Heterosigma in
samples from all around Vancouver Island, at levels from a few cells/mL
(southern Strait of Georgia) to thousands/mL (north and south on the
west coast Vancouver Island, and northern Strait of Georgia).  A thick
bloom of Heterosigma (~30,000 cells/mL) was seen yesterday at Deep Bay
(49 28' N, 124 43' W), but there is very little in Nanaimo at present.
This is the first year of HAMP (since we started in 1999) that we have
seen Heterosigma concurrently at all our sampling sites - it is
particularly unusual to see it in the northern Georgia Strait -
Johnstone Strait area.  This does not bode well for the rest of the
summer.
We are also seeing localised blooms of Cochlodinium cf. polykrikoides on
the west coast of Vancouver Island. 
There is also a bloom of a larger Alexandrium species, probably A.
hiranoi, in the Georgia Strait / Johnstone Strait area.

Nicky Haigh
Harmful Algae Monitoring Program
Rm 201, Building 373
Malaspina University College
900 Fifth Street
Nanaimo BC V9R 5S5
CANADA
Ph: (250) 740-6354
Cell: (250) 537-7176
haighn at MALA.BC.CA

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.whoi.edu/pipermail/soundhab/attachments/20070803/28ba0ad9/attachment.htm