SoundHAB: Possible harmful blooms in Puget Sound

[Jack Rensel]

It appears that there is a possible bloom of Cochlodinium sp. in Sinclair
Inlet (central Puget Sound, near Bremerton) presently, based on sampling
information provided by American Gold Seafoods.   Also there are some
Heterosigma cells in the water of North Puget Sound, north of Cypress
Island.   Presently the tides are extreme which may help attenuate blooms,
but if the warm weather continues, as predicted, by next week there could be
significant blooms of these or other HABs.   

 

The gymnodinioid (unarmored) dinoflagellate Cochlodinium cf. polykrikoides
is a serious wild and farmed fish killer and has been known to occur in
British Columbia where it killed farmed fish a few years ago.  Nicky Haigh
reports that it is often seen in mid to late July in the NE Vancouver Island
area and on the West coast of Vancouver Island from mid-August to October.
It is widely geographically distributed and is notorious for killing fish in
Japan and Korea and seems to have expanded throughout the western Pacific in
recent years.  It was apparently responsible for the recent massive blooms
and fish kills of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf too.    Nicky reports that at
2000 cells per ml it will kill fish in British Columbia but that the
identity is not exactly known for this region.   See
http://www.pices.int/publications/presentations/PICES_15/Ann15_W4/W4_Matsuok
a.pdf for an informative presentation from a recent PICES meeting on this
genus.   

 

Because of these observations I suggest that those of you who can, keep an
eye on your local waters for unusual occurrences and blooms and share your
observations with all of us on SoundHAB.   As we learned in 2006, bloom
succession sometimes involves multiple harmful species and there is a need
to react rapidly to characterize these events.   There is also a need to
collect specimens for positive identification, if possible. 


Best regards,

 

Jack

 

J.E. Jack Rensel Ph.D.

Rensel Associates Aquatic Sciences

4209 234th Street N.E. 

Arlington WA 98223 USA

360-435-3285

cell: 360-631-6538

jackrensel at att.net

www.AquaModel.org

 

 

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