Olympic Region Harmful Algal Blooms

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About ORHAB

What is ORHAB?

The Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom (ORHAB)  is a partnership among federal, state, tribal and local management and research agencies, marine resource-based businesses, and academic institutions. The ORHAB partnership investigates the origins of blooms of toxic algae, monitors where and when the blooms occur, assesses the environmental conditions conducive to blooms and toxification of shellfish populations, and explores methods to reduce HAB impacts on humans and the environment.

Our Objectives

  • To understand the environmental conditions that initiate and maintain blooms of harmful species.
  • To develop an optimized sampling program, models for the prediction and mitigation of HABs.
  • To synthesize and communicate findings rapidly to coastal managers, empowering them to provide safe seafood to the public.
  • To develop, test, and implement new technologies.
  • To serve local, regional, national and international communities through outreach and education.

Initial ORHAB Project Funding

NCCOS National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science

Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful Algal Blooms (MERHAB)

Current ORHAB Funding

ORHAB was formed to build regional capacity to reduce the devastating impacts of marine biotoxin outbreaks on coastal communities of the Olympic Peninsula. MERHAB recognized the potential of ORHAB’s collaboration among federal, tribal, state, local agencies and the private organization when it offered support for a 5-year monitoring partnership. With short term assistance, ORHAB agreed to lay the groundwork for a permanent program of HAB monitoring and mitigation that would not rely on federal support. In acting as a catalyst for the creation of enduring HAB monitoring programs, MERHAB achieves multiple returns on its investment. Non-federal partners are brought together in ways that enhance the capacity of each. The data generated forms the basis for additional research endeavors. The local and regional capacities to make wise management decisions are broadened. Communities develop the knowledge and information to better determine their future.

In 2003 the Washington State Legislature recognized the value of ORHAB and established a permanent source of funding for state activities. A surcharge was added to the cost of recreational shellfish licenses to maintain the monitoring effort. Each year, these fees contribute $150,000 to a special account managed by the University of Washington’s Olympic Natural Resource Center (ONRC). ONRC was created by the Washington Legislature to promote scientific research that addresses the region’s high priority natural resource issues. ONRC will use these funds to maintain ORHAB’s coastwide sampling effort which collects data on toxins, environmental conditions, and plankton blooms. The two state agencies most involved in shellfish management-the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Health –will continue to rely on ORHAB data to understand more fully key changes in conditions along the coast. Both agencies have praised the ORHAB effort as one that shed enormous light on HAB outbreaks that previously were frustratingly unpredictable. ONRC has launched a public education and outreach effort to inform local residents and visitors about HAB impacts and the benefits of ORHAB monitoring. 

Tribal governments have also recognized the need for HAB monitoring and research and have assumed costs for their support. Their internal programs produce data used to protect their tribal members and to add spatial coverage to the ORHAB project on the Washington coast. The state-run ORHAB project recognizes the value of tribal partnerships and supports those programs with shared expertise, supplies and data.

Razor clammingon the WashingtonState coast USA_VeraTrainer
clams and shovel on beach 1
RazorClamsThatCanContainthe Toxin, Domoic Acid_WashingtonState coast, USA_VeraTrainer
clams and shovel on beach 4
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Recent HAB Bulletins

  • May 26, 2022
  • May 13, 2022
  • April 21, 2022
  • April 7, 2022
  • September 27, 2021
  • September 12, 2021
  • June 7, 2021
  • May 20, 2021
  • May 9, 2021
  • April 21, 2021
  • April 11, 2021
  • October 8, 2020
  • September 11, 2020
  • August 15, 2020
  • May 19, 2020
  • April 21, 2020
  • March 25, 2020

Media

The following media reports were made possible through collaboration with ORHAB:

  • —Harmful Algal Blooms – Early Warning Systems to the Rescue (FishSens Magazine, February 28, 2022)

  • –Washington’s razor clam season shut down by hazardous algal blooms
    (Crosscut, March 31, 2021)

  • –As Algae Blooms Increase, Scientists Seek Better Ways to Predict These Toxic Tides
    (Science News, 28 August 2018)

  • –HAB Forecast Gives Washington Confidence to Proceed with Razor  Clam Festival
    (NCCOS, 19 April 2018)

  • –Record-setting Razor Clam Harvest Aided by Pacific Northwest HAB Forecast
    (NCCOS, 20 June 2017)

  • –NOAA Funds Harmful Algal Bloom Forecast System Development in Pacific Northwest
    (NCCOS, 29 September 2016)

  • –UW Gets NOAA Grant to Begin Testing New Forecast for Toxic Shellfish
    (University of Washington, 29 September 2016)

 

Olympic Region Harmful Algal Blooms

P.O. Box 1628 Forks, WA 98331

orhab@uw.edu | 360-374-3220

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