PSP in the News, Alaska
I get this question often: "Is paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) a threat in my area?" My answer is usually, "it could be." Apparently, PSP is in all of Alaska's oceans and seas. See Abundance and distribution of toxic Alexandrium tamarense resting cysts in the sediments of the Chukchi Sea and the eastern Bering Sea at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568988313000632
Last week I was asked from a Bristol Bay area resident; 'What can we do to protect people in the Bristol Bay and northern Alaska Peninsula regions from PSP?' We have learned that PSP events can be confined to small areas or PSP blooms may be more widespread. Research onAlexandrium, the species that causes PSP, and monitoring at these locations will reveal the presence of PSP and toxicity levels and could lead to understanding the risks from PSP in areas used for subsistence clam harvests. If you consume clams, mussels or scallops from Alaska's beaches, I recommend that you follow the safe harvest guidelines in the document found at: http://environmentalaska.us/how-to-eat-clams-and-protect-yourself-too.html
Bruce Wright
Senior Scientist
Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association
Tiny fish could be to blame for crashing Alaska sea life populations
Alex DeMarban
February 14, 2014
A scientist who has spent much of his career studying paralytic shellfish poisoning has an all-encompassing theory about what may have killed gobs of threatened and endangered marine mammal predators in Alaska, not to mention the vaunted king salmon that appears to be on the decline in some of the state's waterways.
The hypothesis involves the tiny sand lance, a pencil-shaped fish found along Alaska’s coasts that gets gobbled up by animals seeking a fatty burst of energy, including Steller sea lions, sea otters and northern fur seals, species of concern that have seen stunning population drops in Western Alaska.
Also chowing down on the fatty forage fish, which takes shelter in the sand up and down Alaska’s coasts, are salmon and birds, said Bruce Wright, a senior scientist with the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, which provides social services to tribal communities in the Aleutians region.
“They’re a super important part of the ecosystem out there,” said Wright, 61, who started in Alaska in 1978 working for Fish and Game and sampling for PSP at the commercial geoduck fishery in Ketchikan.
If Wright’s theory is correct, the sand lance might also have caused some big problems in the region as the climate has warmed. Sand lance eat tiny organisms contaminated by the toxins associated with paralytic shellfish poisoning. And those toxins, as humans know, move up the food chain.
When most Alaskans think of paralytic shellfish poisoning, they think of mussels and clams and state alerts warning subsistence users of potential sickness or death when shellfish have high levels of the toxins. PSP in humans has been an increasing problem: Since 1973, the state has experienced a sevenfold increase in such outbreaks, said Wright, citing information from the state Department of Epidemiology.
The idea that sand lance might also be harboring high levels of PSP toxins is new to her, said Catie Bursch, a state Fish and Game employee from Homer who works with volunteers to monitor Kachemak Bay for PSP, where levels are typically low.
“Most of the time we have thought of PSP as a problem with animals living on the bottom of the oceans that filter feed,” Burcsch said. “It hasn’t been documented as much going up the food chain.”
Filter feeders such as clams ingest a tiny phytoplankton called alexandrium that can harbor the toxins. Sand lance ingest the toxins in a more roundabout way, after eating zooplankton that eat the alexandrium.
Outbreaks of paralytic shellfish poisoning seem to reach across more of the state than they once did, and to occur more often in winter, said Wright.
Climate change may be a factor in the growth of PSP, with more winter rains creating more opportunity for the creation of algal blooms as freshwater runoff spills into the sea. When the freshwater nutrients sit atop saltwater without being disturbed by, say, strong winds, the area where the two waters meet can form the perfect nursery for the toxic organisms, Wright said.
Those toxins have been found in sand lance and the animals that eat them, he said. In 2012, several Kittlitz’s murrelets on Kodiak Island were found dead after eating PSP-contaminated sand lance, Wright said. The combination also led to a die-off of terns in 1978 on the East Coast, Wright said.
Wright, who has annually monitored PSP in clams and mussels in the Aleutians since 2006, said it’s possible that PSP-contaminated sand lance could have caused huge drops in populations of threatened fur seals and sea otters, as well as endangered Steller sea lions, if they’d eaten large batches of contaminated fish.
He even suggests that a lot of juvenile king salmon could have been wiped out after eating contaminated sand lance along the remote and barely populated Aleutian Islands, where large numbers of salmon could disappear and never be noticed, he said.
“You can take out a whole year class of king salmon and everyone would blame it on bycatch,” Wright said, referring to the accidental take of king salmon by the pollock trawlers. “Bycatch is certainly an issue, but sand lance could be too.”
Wright recently won funding from the Environmental Protection Agency to study PSP in sand lance. Part of the project will involve working with local technicians in communities along the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands.
Those technicians already scout for PSP in clams and mussels at 10 sites in the Aleutian and Pribilof islands. If levels of toxins spike in those locations, such as in Unalaska, Wright said he’ll travel to the area to capture the sand lance so they can be tested as well.
With help from local observers, he’ll also be looking for birds or animals that may have died after ingesting toxic sand lance, so the animals can be tested for paralytic shellfish poisoning as well.
“If PSP is a big player, we should have a discussion about that, and not just about the bycatch and other problems that might be causing these declines,” he said.
Contact Alex DeMarban at alex(at)alaskadispatch.com.
November 15, 2013: Alaska Tribe Launches a Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring Program
The Sitka Tribe of Alaska and other communities in southeast Alaska establish a harmful algal bloom (HAB) monitoring program for recreational and subsistence shellfisheries. In October, two cases of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) were reported by the state and were linked to butter clams containing PSP toxins that were harvested for personal consumption from a beach near Sitka. Elevated PSP levels have prompted the state to close most southeast Alaska commercial shellfishery areas since the opening of the fall fishery. However, recreational and subsistence shellfishers in the region continue to get sick from PSP exposure in non-tested areas outside the commercial zone. Sitka and other southeast communities have turned to NOAA for help in establishing HAB monitoring programs to address this problem.
The NCCOS project will support a workshop for state and tribal resource and public health managers, where researchers from NOAA, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a contractor will provide expert guidance on running a HAB monitoring program, hands-on training on HAB cell identification, and advice on toxin detection methods. Support for NOAA participants will be provided by the Sitka Tribe of Alaska.
June 17th, 2013 Orange Tides in Alaska
The Sitka Tribe of Alaska and other communities in southeast Alaska establish a harmful algal bloom (HAB) monitoring program for recreational and subsistence shellfisheries. In October, two cases of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) were reported by the state and were linked to butter clams containing PSP toxins that were harvested for personal consumption from a beach near Sitka. Elevated PSP levels have prompted the state to close most southeast Alaska commercial shellfishery areas since the opening of the fall fishery. However, recreational and subsistence shellfishers in the region continue to get sick from PSP exposure in non-tested areas outside the commercial zone. Sitka and other southeast communities have turned to NOAA for help in establishing HAB monitoring programs to address this problem.
The NCCOS project will support a workshop for state and tribal resource and public health managers, where researchers from NOAA, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a contractor will provide expert guidance on running a HAB monitoring program, hands-on training on HAB cell identification, and advice on toxin detection methods. Support for NOAA participants will be provided by the Sitka Tribe of Alaska.
June 17th, 2013 Orange Tides in Alaska
2008 Noctiluca bloom in Ketchican, AK, repeated in 2009 and 2010
For the sixth summer in a row an orange discoloration has appeared in Alaskan coastal waters. In 2008, scientists determined an orange tide in Ketchican came from a bloom of harmful algae, Noctiluca scintillians. Researchers have linked this alga with fish mortality events worldwide, but its toxic compounds do not affect humans. Blooms of Noctiluca repeated the next two summers in Ketchican.
For the sixth summer in a row an orange discoloration has appeared in Alaskan coastal waters. In 2008, scientists determined an orange tide in Ketchican came from a bloom of harmful algae, Noctiluca scintillians. Researchers have linked this alga with fish mortality events worldwide, but its toxic compounds do not affect humans. Blooms of Noctiluca repeated the next two summers in Ketchican.
2011 Chrysomyxa spore dispersal in Kivalina, AK repeated in 2012 in Kachemak, AK
In May 2013, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife biologists from the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge observed an orange water discoloration visually similar to the other Alaskan events. Scientists determined this Alaskan orange tide as a Noctiluca algal bloom not hazardous to coastal residents.
In 2011, an unusual orange tide appeared in the coastal waters of Kivalina, a remote Inupiaq village along Alaska’s northwest coast. Though visually similar to Noctiluca blooms, scientists identified it as terrestrial fungal spores driven by wind into coastal waters. Based upon NOAA electron micrographs, U.S. and Canadian Forest Service scientists confirmed the spores as spruce needle rust (Chrysomyxa ledicola). ‘Rust’ infects only plants, not people; however, high densities of fungal spores could cause respiratory effects. An orange tide of fungal spore repeated the following summer in the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.
In May 2013, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife biologists from the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge observed an orange water discoloration visually similar to the other Alaskan events. Scientists determined this Alaskan orange tide as a Noctiluca algal bloom not hazardous to coastal residents.
Discolored waters from harmful algal blooms alarm coastal residents and can quickly threaten their health and the environment. Alaska coastal waters, with many unique ecosystems and 34,000 miles of tidal shoreline, pose unparalleled challenges for coastal preparedness and response.
Related Links
Alaska “Orange Goo” Rust Spores Confirmed
Alaskan “Orange Goo” Determined to be Fungal Spores
In May 2013, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife biologists from the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge observed an orange water discoloration visually similar to the other Alaskan events. Scientists determined this Alaskan orange tide as a Noctiluca algal bloom not hazardous to coastal residents.
In 2011, an unusual orange tide appeared in the coastal waters of Kivalina, a remote Inupiaq village along Alaska’s northwest coast. Though visually similar to Noctiluca blooms, scientists identified it as terrestrial fungal spores driven by wind into coastal waters. Based upon NOAA electron micrographs, U.S. and Canadian Forest Service scientists confirmed the spores as spruce needle rust (Chrysomyxa ledicola). ‘Rust’ infects only plants, not people; however, high densities of fungal spores could cause respiratory effects. An orange tide of fungal spore repeated the following summer in the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.
In May 2013, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife biologists from the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge observed an orange water discoloration visually similar to the other Alaskan events. Scientists determined this Alaskan orange tide as a Noctiluca algal bloom not hazardous to coastal residents.
Discolored waters from harmful algal blooms alarm coastal residents and can quickly threaten their health and the environment. Alaska coastal waters, with many unique ecosystems and 34,000 miles of tidal shoreline, pose unparalleled challenges for coastal preparedness and response.
Related Links
Alaska “Orange Goo” Rust Spores Confirmed
Alaskan “Orange Goo” Determined to be Fungal Spores