SoundHAB: FW: June 2011 Fraser bloom update

Fri Jul 1 13:45:41 EDT 2011

Message from Kevin Bright that bounced off the WHOI server for some unknown
reason.

Many thanks Kevin for the information and photos!

Jack

From: Kevin Bright [mailto:KevinB at IcicleSeafoods.com] 
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2011 9:16 AM
To: soundhab-bounces at whoi.edu
Subject: June 2011 Fraser bloom update

The Heterosigma bloom that moved through the north Puget Sound area seems to
have ran its' course for the time being in the eastern side of the San Juan
Islands. On June 26th, 27th and 28th counts in the millions of cells per
liter were being found at the surface (1.5 m) at the known hot spots. These
sites were being fed by the Fraser River plume as can be seen in the photos
below. Counts at the Cypress farm site peaked at 1.8 mil cells/ L., on June
26th as red streaks swept through some of the fish pens in Deepwater Bay
with the tide. Farm personnel report seeing a dark brown streak of water
(1.8 million/L.) move through two of the 12 cages at the site on the evening
of June 26th. The next morning divers pulled 850 and 500 dead fish out of
those two pens. The other 10 cages of fish at the same site had mortalities
in the 50 to 90 fish per cage range. Fortunately the bloom stayed near the
surface and cell counts at 10 m were staying an order of magnitude less.
Subsequent dives over the next few days had single digit fish mortalities in
all of the pens. Counts dropped to the 500K to 800K range at the surface and
stayed 180K at 10 meters over the next couple of days. Large flood tides
brought cleaner, green water into the area from the south up Rosario Strait.
The increasing tides and tidal mixing during the week, coupled with the
cloudy weather may have helped to break up the June Fraser Heterosigma
culture that had been brewing over the past couple of weeks. Neap tides the
week prior and several weeks of large flow rates from the Fraser created a
perfect "several hundred square mile large Petri dish."

Port Angeles site is still reporting some Heterosigma in the samples as of
June 30th. No increases in fish mortality occurred at that site during the
event. Cell counts did not get over 1 million per liter which seems to be
the magic number.  

Fish pen site, near Coast Guard Station at the entrance to Port Angeles
Harbor:

AM 90,000 to 210,000

PM 200,000 to 320,000

Near the City of Port Angeles 

AM 100,000 to 410,000

PM 300,000 to 700,000

Inside the Harbor at the western end 

Am 150,000 to 320,000

PM 260,000 to 480,000

Outside PA Harbor in the Strait of Juan de Fuca (outside the Hook)

Am 140,000 to 160,000

PM 130,000 to 290,000

The photo in the Top Left: show a Rafter slide with a water sample taken
from a red patch of water on the east side of Guemes Island. Heterosigma
cell counts were in the 30,000,000 cells/ l., range.   

Top Right: The Cone Islands adjacent to Cypress Island and 2 miles north of
the fish pens. Eagle Harbor can be seen in the top of the photo where the
boats are moored.

Bottom left: Looking northward from Sucia Island towards Vancouver and the
Fraser River delta (Point Roberts is visible in the distance) showing the
Fraser plume setting up the perfect culturing environment for this bloom
event. 

Bottom right: East side of Guemes Island with river plume and red streaks.
30 million/ l., samples came from here.    

We are flying today to take another look around the San Juan's and Straits
for red water. Hopefully we don't see any and we can all enjoy the weekend.
Onward to July.

Kevin Bright, American Gold Seafoods

From: Kevin and Kelley Bright [mailto:kjbright at comcast.net] 
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2011 6:46 AM
To: Kevin Bright
Subject: FW: SoundHAB: Heterosigma Bloom East Sound, Orcas Island, San Juans

From: soundhab-bounces at whoi.edu [mailto:soundhab-bounces at whoi.edu] On Behalf
Of Megan Black
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2011 7:46 PM
To: soundhab at whoi.edu
Subject: SoundHAB: Heterosigma Bloom East Sound, Orcas Island, San Juans

East Sound of Orcas Island is experiencing a localized intense Heterosigma
bloom at 30-28 PSU.  Occurring with it are large accumulations of Noctiluca
against the shore lines. Also, there are large numbers of dinoflagellates
including Dinophysis, small Gymnodinium, Protoperidinium, Alexandrium, fewer
Gyrodinium, and fewer Oxhyrris. The north end of East Sound contained fewer
Heterosigma, few Noctiluca, or dinoflagellates, but was thick with an
ameboid flagellated protozoan similar to Cercomonas.   

For comparison, I've included first a photo of the waters just north of
Orcas where a diluted Frasier River silt water mass on the right is meeting
clearer waters on the left.  Next is a photo of a bay on the south east side
of East Sound where the Noctiluca is pushed up against the shore and the
Heterosigma is thick from the mouth of the bay outward.  The third photo is
of Rosario, midway up East Sound, and again, Noctiluca is visible as a mass
along the shore and docks, and Heterosigma dominates farther out from shore.

Liz Tobin and I observed no other obvious Heterosigma blooms around the San
Juans in yesterday's flight.  Also, the notable Noctiluca bloom covering the
main basin of Puget Sound had subsided by this morning after yesterday's
strong winds from the south.

Photos taken 29June2011 by Megan Black from ~1200 feet.  Feel free to use
them with acknowledgment.

Megan Black

Doctoral Candidate

Department of Biology

University of Washington

Cattolico Laboratory

42 Kincaid Hall

Box 351800

Seattle, WA 98195

425-753-5679

mmdblack at u.washington.edu

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