Oceanus Online Archive
Sargassum serendipity
A surprise find connects MIT students working on solutions for a harmful algal bloom in the Caribbean
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A dragnet for toxic algae?
To keep a close eye on harmful algal blooms, shellfish farmers are relying on a WHOI-developed camera system that spies on toxic species below the surface and sends alerts when…
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The Recipe for a Harmful Algal Bloom
Harmful algal blooms can produce toxins that accumulate in shellfish and cause health problems and economic losses. They have increased in strength and frequency worldwide. Can we get advance warnings…
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As Bay Warms, Harmful Algae Bloom
Warming coastal waters off southern Massachusetts are worsening the effects of pollution from septic systems, wastewater treatment plants, and fertilizer runoff—and causing a rise in harmful algal blooms. Researchers at…
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Not Just Another Lovely Summer Day on the Water
It looks like nice summer day on the water, but Alexis Fischer (right) and Alice Alpert, graduate students in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, are hard at work preparing instruments called…
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Setting a Watchman for Harmful Algal Blooms
As harmful algal blooms are becoming more frequent and severe worldwide, researchers in the lab of WHOI biologist Don Anderson are testing an array of new instruments that can be…
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Dropping a Laboratory into the Sea
Scientists at WHOI deploy moored robotic laboratories in the Gulf of Maine for long-term monitoring of red tide algae
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Brown Tides and Redfielders
Come spring, Louie Wurch’s mind turns toward softball and another, less idyllic seasonal phenomenon: brown tides. Both scientist and shortstop, Wurch spearheaded the creation of the Biology Department’s team in…
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Scientists Use “ESP” to Track Harmful Algae
Researchers in biologist Don Anderson’s lab are celebrating a new arrival—a gleaming, 3-foot-high robotic instrument that promises to revolutionize how scientists detect and study the ocean’s tiny but troublesome inhabitants:…
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Researchers Successfully Forecast 2008 Red Tide
A research team led by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) successfully predicted the widespread harmful algal bloom that materialized this year in New England coastal waters. The forecasting…
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Cytobot Gives Early Red Tide Warning
An automated underwater microscope developed by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) detected an unexpected bloom of toxic algae in the Gulf of Mexico in February 2008. The fortunate…
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The algae Alexandrium fundyense are notorious for producing a toxin that accumulates in shellfish such as clams, mussels, and oysters, leading to paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans. The microscopic plants…
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Anderson Addresses UN Ocean Commission
Senior Scientist Don Anderson of the WHOI Biology Department was invited to deliver the Bruun Memorial Lecture in June at the 23rd annual meeting of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)…
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Red TideGone for Now, But Back Next Year?
The historic bloom of toxic algae that blanketed New England’s waters and halted shellfishing from Maine to Martha’s Vineyard in the spring of 2005 is over. But scientists are now…
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Seeing Red in New England Waters
Coastal resource managers shut down shellfish beds in three New England states in mid-May—including rare closures of Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay—because of an intense bloom of the toxic…
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Risks and Remedies from the Sea
Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have embarked on a novel collaboration to investigate harmful algal blooms, ocean-borne…
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A Fatal Attraction for Harmful Algae
Estuaries are the borderlands between salt and freshwater environments, and they are incredibly diverse both biologically and physically. The diversity and the high energy of the ecosystem make estuaries remarkably…
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Red Tides and Dead Zones
The most widespread, chronic environmental problem in the coastal ocean is caused by an excess of chemical nutrients. Over the past century, a wide range of human activities—the intensification of…
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The Growing Problem of Harmful Algae
Harmful algal blooms are natural and they are not new. But ocean scientists are growing concerned that they are now all too common. The unprecedented growth of human activities in…
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