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Bloom Buoys

May 30, 2014

WHOI engineers Neil McPhee and Will Ostrom and Northeastern University student Ethan Edson (left to right) were part of a team who deployed three Environmental Sample Processors (ESPs) in early May to measure the concentration of algal cells and associated toxins during the spring bloom in the Gulf of Maine. The instruments provide near-real-time data as part of a pilot program to monitor harmful algal blooms (HABs) or “red tides” and understand the ocean conditions that can lead to shellfish closures along the New England coast. So far, the ESPs have remotely detected the initiation of  the toxic Alexandrium bloom at all three sites.(Photo by Bruce Keafer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)