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 live mice. The next day we didnt dare phone to ask for an update but waited for an email, knowing Rex would be hard at work. Soon that email arrived and briefly, but accurately, described the materials and method used. This was followed by a list of each sample in numerical order with a short description of symptoms observed, most being no symptoms. But next to one sample were the words death in seconds. We immediately phoned Rex and asked what he thought of this result. His reply was Well, yes, that is an interesting sample. I have diluted it 10,000 fold and its still killing a mouse in under one minute. Ill never know if he was having us on or if he was just that truly objective and professional, he was often both. Paul McNabb The toxicity of anatoxin congeners from cyanobacteria: Working in Hamilton on toxins from cyanobacteria I had heard the tales of the legendary Rex Munday and had always longed for the chance to work with him. A year ago, the opportunity was realised as we set out to investigate the acute toxicity of the anatoxin congeners, which are produced by the Phormidium which plagues many rivers around New Zealand. For a young scientist Rexs levelheaded guidance was a god-send and allowed us to navigate a safe course through the minefield which research can be. Anyone who has worked near me whilst Im extracting Phormidium samples knows that the aroma is slightly off-putting. Rex had the following succinctly simple statement on the difficulties of trying to feed these musty extracts to mice; For experiments on toxicity by feeding, mice are trained to eat small quantities of cream cheese. When they eat the offered cream cheese within a matter of seconds, the appropriate weight of freeze dried test material is mixed with the cheese and given to the mice. However, mice trained to eat cream cheese refused to eat the mixture with Phormidium extract and a different approach was required. Rexs solution ended up being quite simple and effective; a positive displacement pipette was used to place the food on to the mouses tongue and the food was instantly/instinctively gobbled it up. Rexs innovation and experience will be sorely missed by the toxic cyanobacteria research community of New Zealand. Jonathan Puddick Oral toxicity of paralytic shellfish toxins: Rex was a key cog in the Safe NZ Seafood research programme, wellliked and respected by his colleagues both in NZ and abroad. He had an easygoing nature and great sense of humour. His work on the toxicity of various marine toxins over a long period of time made him an expert in this field. Rex published his findings in numerous journal articles, book chapters and featured on a number of expert working groups. He was firm in his belief that the toxicity assessment of marine toxins should be based on oral exposure rather than intraperitoneal administration, as this more accurately represents their route of exposure in humans. In recent years, Rex undertook a large piece of work on the acute toxicity of paralytic shellfish toxins, which represent a class of structurally related marine toxins that are problematic in NZ and other parts of the world. His findings are internationally important and will result in changes to the way this toxin class is regulated and will undoubtedly improve human health protection from exposure to these potent marine toxins. On a personal level Rex was both a mentor and a friend. He always took the time to ask how I was going and how my family was tracking. He was terrific to bounce ideas off and was able to provide guidance on how to deal with work matters that were not going so well. I really appreciated this gesture. Thanks Rex, you will be missed. Tim Harwood The identification of pinnatoxins in pacific oysters: I worked with Rex on some very interesting projects over the past 15 years. He was a fantastic person to collaborate with as he was an extremely good scientist, an inspirational mentor and had a great sense of humour to boot. My job as a natural products chemist was to provide Rex with compounds for toxicological evaluation. Rex always enjoyed giving us chemists a hard time, and because of his background in chemistry he knew how to do this really well. He would take great joy in seeing the reaction on our faces when he explained how much toxin would be required for a toxicological study, knowing that this would be a painstaking and near impossible task. One of the highlights of my early career was working with Rex on a research project to identify unknown toxins in shellfish from South Australia. Several oyster growing areas in South Australia had been closed down due to the presence of an unidentified fast acting toxin. The project was extremely successful; we discovered three novel toxins, pinnatoxins E, F and G and determined their acute toxicity. This resulted in the re-opening of oyster growing areas in South Australia and in New Zealand. To be honest, I was nervous about taking on such a complex project due to my lack of experience. Rexs support and mentorship gave me the confidence to be able to complete that challenging task. Andy Selwood k HARMFUL ALGAE NEWS NO. 58 / 2017 15 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