Algae Bloom off West Coast, Aug. 17

It’s big, deadly, and has not shown any signs of going away soon. A large algae bloom looms off the West Coast and it has already had an impact on marine species and fishing. Recreational and commercial crabbing was discontinued earlier in Washington’s waters, and other shellfish closures have taken place along the some of the beaches of Oregon, Washington and Northern California this summer. The manager of NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center Marine Biotoxin Program, Vera Trainer, says “the West Coast is in the midst of the most prolific toxic algal outbreak ever recorded.” NOAA sent a team of ocean researchers out on the Pacific Ocean this summer to conduct a three-month mission to track and map the dangerous algae blooms between Canada and Southern California. The blooms contain deadly toxins that can lead to domoic acid poisoning. A sea lion was witnessed having seizures on a Washington State beach earlier this summer. The toxins reportedly follow unusual currents of warm water to the Pacific Northwest dubbed the “warm blob.”