SoundHAB: red patches in Tramp Harbor/ recheck of QMH

[Jack Rensel]

Thanks Karlista,  Interesting post. 

Akashiwo sanguinea (I like the old name better, Gymnodinium splendens,
perhaps a reference to its bioluminescent activity) was all over South Puget
Sound last year and is a species that needs much more research on effects on
the food web.   Were the jelly fish the common moon jellyfish (Aurelia), the
ones that are clear all the way through except the four circular gonads?  

I wonder if there is a connection, although it is common to find these
jellies dying in late summer after reproduction.  Other than its effect on
bird feathers, virtually no one has examined A. sanguinea for toxicity in
our area except Rick Cardwell et al. linked it to shellfish larval mortality
along with C. fusus many years ago.
http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=ENV&recid
=7909660&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.csa.com%2Fpartners%2Fviewrecord.php%3Frequester%
3Dgs%26collection%3DENV%26recid%3D7909660&uid=792048010&setcookie=yes

Rick was a very inventive WDF biologist and later consultant who published
quite a bit on these matters.  I found that C. fusus was linked with the
death of coho salmon and spot prawns (both with coal black colored gills) in
pens at Woodard Bay (Rensel and Prentice 1980) but not in deep water.  From
that experience (nearly wiping out my MSc work, but starting my interest in
HABs and their influence on food webs) I surmised that most sensitive
juvenile forms of fish and invertebrate species like these extirpated from
backwaters throughout Puget Sound and in particular South Puget Sound in
late summer and early fall.  Larger individuals can probably escape by
swimming below the blooms but there are scant records of these species
occurring at this time of year in bays and inlets of South Puget Sound and
some of the main basin backwaters.  The depth of the vertical stratification
is key to this relationship, it is often shallow, but then so are the inlets
and bays.   

Anyway, this week should be interesting in Puget Sound with the coming hot
weather this late in the season!

Jack

-----Original Message-----
From: soundhab-bounces at whoi.edu [mailto:soundhab-bounces at whoi.edu] On Behalf
Of Karlista Rickerson
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2012 6:10 PM
To: SoundHAB at whoi.edu
Subject: SoundHAB: red patches in Tramp Harbor/ recheck of QMH

Driving past Tramp Harbor this afternoon I noticed a red/ orange streak on
the surface. When seen in the net it looks like rotting green algae.  Being
curious, I collected a surface sample - there is a bloom of Pleurosigma , in
.01 ml sample I counted 779, the next most common was Ceratium fusus

The I went over to QMH. There are many dead jelly fish along the shore line.
Surface water has a bloom of Akashowo sanguinea, net tow also bloom of
Akashowo sanguinea, Ceratium fusus is common, A north eind has been blowing
for several days and that influences the water at Tramp Harbor and QMH.

Mussels from 9/10 still have 1336 Alex toxin!
Karlista
_______________________________________________
SoundHAB mailing list
SoundHAB at whoi.edu
http://mailman.whoi.edu/mailman/listinfo/soundhab