Rex Munday in Memoriam Dr Rex Munday, an internationally renowned toxicologist, sadly passed away on the 20th July this year. His wife Christine, daughter Sarah (Finch) and son John were with him. Rex published with all his family at different times, an example being the paper Munday, Munday and Munday, 2005, J. Agric. Food Chem. 53, pp 96959700! Rex, an organic chemist (graduated Sheffield University, UK), arrived in 1979 for a two year stint at AgResearch, Hamilton, New Zealand, as a facial eczema research fellow and ended up staying for nearly four decades. He was instrumental in developing the zinc bolus technology which provides a practical solution to protect animals from facial eczema. In 2009 his research was recognised with a Kudos Lifetime Achievement Award (Kudos Science Trust, Waikato, New Zealand). It is worth checking out his own explanation of his research at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=bimDOJPbi_o. Rex also researched isothiocyanates, which are present in Brassica vegetables, and demonstrated that they afford protection against bladder cancer in experimental animals, raising the possibility that these natural, non-toxic substances could be valuable for cancer prevention in humans. As Principal scientist, toxicology at AgResearch, he rapidly became internationally recognised for his work for the government funded Safe New Zealand Seafood programme, collaborating with the Cawthron Institute to determine the implications of micro-algal biotoxins for human safety. The work saw him involved with the FAO/WHO/IOC expert panel on shellfish toxins and expert panels of EFSA on setting regulatory limits for biotoxins. He was on the organising committee for the 16th International conference on Harmful Algae, Wellington, New Zealand, 2014, and presented a plenary lecture on Risk assessment of seafood toxins. Many readers of HANews will remember him for his succinct, informative and often entertaining presentations over many years. He has chapters on biotoxin toxicity in many books, for example: 14 - Munday R 2013. Toxicity of Cyclic Imines. In Toxins and Biologically Active Compounds from Marine Microalgae, G.-P. Rossini (ed.), - Munday R 2013. Toxicology of Seafood Toxins: A Critical Review. In Seafood and Freshwater Toxins: Pharmacology, Physiology and Detection, Third Edition. L. M. Botana (ed.) and, about to be published, - Munday R 2017 Toxicology of Seafood Toxins: Animal Studies and Mechanisms of Action. In Comprehensive Analytical Chemistry: Recent Advances on the Analysis of Marine Toxins. J Diogene and M Campas (eds.). Rex was very sure that oral toxicity was the way to go for the setting of biotoxin regulations. He wrote a comment about Paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), which was to be submitted to HANews, and which stated with his usual clarity that: New analytical techniques allow the concentration of the various PSTs in a seafood sample to be determined with accuracy and precision. But the toxicity of the different compounds in the mixture of toxins varies, so in order to determine the risk of the sample to human health, we need to know the relative toxicities of the different compounds in the mixture. This permits the calculation of Toxicity Equivalence Factors (TEFs). A major compound in the mixture (in the case of the PSTs this is saxitoxin) is given a TEF of 1.0. If the toxicity of a compound (Compound X) in the mixture is half that of saxitoxin, its TEF is 0.5. If the toxicity of another compound (Compound Y) is twice as toxic as saxitoxin, its TEF is 2.0. So, if the analytical data shows concentrations of saxitoxin, Compound X and Compound Y in the sample of 0.5 μg/g, 0.2 μg/g and 1 μg/g respectively, the overall toxicity can be calculated as 1 x 0.5 + 0.5 x 0.2 + 1 x 2 = 2.6 μg/g. In the past, TEFs for PSTs have been based on toxicity by intraperitoneal injection in mice. This is inappropriate, since human exposure to such toxins is via the oral route, and there is no correlation between toxicity by intraperitoneal injection and that by oral administration. The acute oral toxicity of a number of PSTs has now been determined in mice, and these data have been used to calculate TEFs that are relevant to the human situation. The new data on oral toxicity will lead to a more precise evaluation of the levels of PSTs in seafood that are safe for human consumption. Rex was highly regarded by his colleagues and was a mentor to many younger scientists. We will all miss his sage advice and his delightfully dry sense of humour. His contribution to HAB science has been immense. A small sample of Rexs >150 key HAB related publications Munday R, Briggs L, Truman P, Gooneratne R, Edwards P, Pascal S M 2012. Novel toxins produced by the dinoflagellate Karenia brevisulcata. Harmful Algae, 13, 47-57. Munday R, Quilliam M A, LeBlanc P, Lewis N, Gallant P, Sperker S A, Ewart H S, MacKinnon S L 2012. Investigations into the toxicology of spirolides, a group of marine phycotoxins. Toxins 4, 1-14. Munday R., Selwood A I, Rhodes L 2012. Acute toxicity of pinnatoxins E, F and G to mice. Toxicon, 60, 995-999. Munday R. 2011. Palytoxin toxicology: Animal studies. Toxicon, 57, 470-477. Lesley L. Rhodes, Tim Harwood, Andy Selwood, Kirsty Smith, Lincoln Mackenzie Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand Paul McNabb IECU Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Nelson, New Zealand HARMFUL ALGAE NEWS NO. 58 / 2017 Harmful Algae News An IOC Newsletter on Toxic Algae and Algal Blooms No. 58 - November 2017 www.ioc-unesco.org/hab Call to Contribute to Global Harmful Algal Bloom Status Reporting From 25 to 28 September 2017 sixteen HAB experts from 13 countries gathered at the headquarters of the IOC IODE (Inte the first of which will be launched in Nantes. Follow the development of the Global HAB Status Report at http://haedat. iode.org/ and see who is involved and how you may engage. Acknowledgements We thank Ward Appeltans and Pieter Provoost at the IOC/IODE Project Office for hospitality and technical PSP# # # # # # DSP# # # # # # AZP# ! ! ! Fig. 4. Maps showing the incidence of PSP, DSP and AZP during the period 2014 to 2016 in the North Atlantic as reported by the ICES-IOC WG HABD. Areas such as Northern Canada and Greenland are not routinely sampled and countries with pink borders have sti Pelagic Sargassum reaching Serranilla Bank, Caribbean Colombia, may pose a risk to baby turtles Fig. 1. Location of Serranilla Bank in the Caribbean Sea (Photo Wikipedia) Floating Sargassum has been known from centuries to occur in the Atlantic Ocean, in a region named the Sargasso Sea. Floating S NEW!! Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and Desalination: A Guide to Impacts, Monitoring, and Management Manuals and Guides 78 Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and Desalination: A Guide to Impacts, Monitoring, and Management Fig. 3. Sargassum accumulation as a thick mat on the nesting beach Edited by: Dona A red tide event associated with the dinoflagellate Karenia mikimotoi in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland Fig. 1. Maximum abundance of K. mikimotoi by month and year for monitoring sites in Scottish coastal waters. The densest bloom observed exceeded 4 million cells per litre in July 2016. The potenti Fig. 5. Theoretical effect of the K. mikimotoi bloom on background dissolved oxygen concentration (black horizontal dashed line: Firth of Clyde summer averaged SEPA data 2005-2015). Cell density was sufficient to cause hypoxia on 3 occasions at 4.59mg L-1[8] or once at 2mg L-1 (grey dashed lines). A First evidence of high saxitoxin concentration in Crassostrea iridiscens associated with Gymnodinium catenatum blooms at Banderas Bay, Jalisco México Fig. 1. Location of sampling stations in Banderas Bay Jalisco México during Gymnodinium catenatum bloom from March to June of 2017. Banderas Bay has Fig. 2. High saxitoxin concentration in Crassostrea iridiscens associated with Gymnodinium catenatum blooms in Banderas Bay, Jalisco México. Fig. 4. Micrographs of live cells of Gymnodinium catenatum from Banderas Bay at 400x (a) and 200x (b); Seawater discoloration due to a G. catenatum patch duri ICES-IOC Working Group on Harmful Algal Blooms Dynamics The report of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC) Working Group on Harmful Algal Bloom Dy namics (ICES-IOC WGHABD) is now available on the ICES website ( SEAFDEC-MFRD Regional Training Course in Malaysia Harmful algal blooms (HAB) and their socio-economic impacts are recognized internationally due to the negative impacts from HABs on the the coastal ecosystem, safety and security of food and drinking water, and human health hazards. Some incidents an Forthcoming events Workshop on morpho-molecular methods for the study of dinoflagellate cysts ICES-IOC-IMO Working Group on Ballast and Other Ship Vectors 5-7 March 2018 Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th February 2018 Location: Cawthron Institute, 98 Halifax Street East, Nelson 7010, New Zealand Organi the 18th international conference on harmful algae from ecosystems to socio-ecosystems SAVE the date! FATMA GUELLATI/UPMC-UNIV BADJI MOKHTAR Minyvel Environnement/Phenomer Nicolas Chomérat/IFREmer Véronique Séchet/IFREmer Olivier BARBAROUX/IFREmer Stéphane LESBATS/IFREmer Olivier DUG Rex Munday in Memoriam Dr Rex Munday, an internationally renowned toxicologist, sadly passed away on the 20th July this year. His wife Christine, daughter Sarah (Finch) and son John were with him. Rex published with all his family at different times, an example being the paper Munday, Munday and Mun Rex Mundays HAB research highlights Discovery of Tetrodotoxin in grey side-gilled sea slugs: Rex had a sharp wit, best illustrated with an anecdote from 2013. We had collected hundreds of samples to explain why dogs were dying on Auckland beaches and sent twelve to Rex for toxicity screening using l ! Oostende OBIS/HAEDAT training workshop participants. Eds-in-chief Beatriz Reguera, IEO, Vigo, Spain Eilen Bresnan, MARLAB, Scotland, UK Regional Editors Caribbean: Ernesto Mancera jemancerap@unal.edu.co Europe: Philip Hess Philipp.Hess@ifremer.fr India: K.B. Padmakumar kbpadmakumar@gmail.c