on a decadal time scale, and identified palaeoclimatic oscillations are not necessarily a useful guide to its interpretation. An obvious obstacle to detecting climate signals in HAB data is posed by anthropogenic eutrophication. Another obstacle is the fact that phytoplankton respond directly to the increased [CO2] blamed for warming in many models. Phytoplankton, macroalgae and sea grasses respond to raised [CO2] by increased nitrate uptake and growth. Thus higher [CO2] can lower the impact of eutrophication. Increased [CO2] consumption by phytoplankton also raises pH, hence counters any tendency for acidification. In the original examples of increased intensity of blooms (Tokyo Bay and inner Oslofjord), eutrophication seems a highly likely cause since both are semienclosed water bodies with increasingly urbanized watersheds; but eutrophication cannot have driven the sudden spread of PSP into the western Gulf of Maine, open waters with low human population density along the coast. The message from these examples is that we must analyse the frequency, intensity, and spreading of HABs as separate phenomena, on a species by species basis, and not lump them all together as manifestations of a global epidemic. The same message emerges from more recent examples, for example those summarized by Hallegraeff [6] from his antipodean perspective. Edward Lorenz [7] asked, Does the flap of a butterflys wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas? Is the behavior of the atmosphere unstable with respect to perturbations of small amplitude? There is a nonlinear relationship between the two variables, butterflies and tornados, meaning that an equation relating them is not of the first degree; nonlinear relationships are the hallmark of dynamical systems (Fig. 1). Lorenz wrote: Since we do not know exactly how many butterflies there are, nor where they are located, let alone which ones are flapping their wings at any instant, we cannot, if the answer to our question is affirmative, ..., accurately predict the occurrence of tornados at a sufficiently distant future time. A practical corollary of this sensitivity to initial conditions, called the butterfly effect, is that forecasts of the future are nearly impossible. Climate 18 Fig. 2. PSP toxicity maxima identified by White [11] are centered on years 1945, 1961 and 1980; these lag minima of lunar declination in 1940, 1959, and 1978 by a few years. Had the trend continued, further peaks might have been expected around 2000 and this year. The Lepreau Harbour toxicity time series shown here has the three earlier peaks, and more recent ones in 1995 and 2009 which precede the lunar declination minima in 1997 and 2015. Clearly the nodal signal is not the whole story! (Figure courtesy of Jennifer Martin, St Andrews Biological Station, NB, Canada). then is the prototype of chaotic systems. We all know that algal growth and the likelihood of blooms are linked to wind regimes, water column stability, runoff, mixing rates, and so on, that is to the local weather, all modulated by regional climate variations. One might therefore anticipate that time series of harmful algal events contain signals provoked by multiannual trends in these oceanographic parameters, hence act as proxies for climate trends. But it seems to be very hard to extract unambiguous signals from records of HABs and algal toxins. In an issue of the Journal of Sea Research [8], 14 papers examine phytoplankton time series 1 to 4 decades in length, with special attention to climate variability and eutrophication. The initial hope that these data sets do contain significant signals, and that they can be identified and described, is not realized, at least on these time scales; and, despite indisputable and often major changes in coastal waters caused by human activities, no clear signals are detectable in phytoplankton composition and dynamics, nor any which are distinguishable from changes in areas relatively unaffected by such impacts. [9]. Claims to the contrary make much use of the subjunctive tense. But Kedong Yin & Jianzhang HE may have distinguished eutrophication and climate variation in a time series (1983 to 2014) of Hong Kong red tides [10]. In the case of toxins, PSP records from the Bay of Fundy (1944-1983) have yielded evidence of a multi-annual lunar signal, the nodal tide, with a period of 18.6 years (Fig. 2) [11]. This finding merits more attention than it has so far received given that the same signal has emerged from analyses of the PDO, the NAO, and many oceanographic and meteorological time series [12, 13]. Chaotic systems are conceptually remote from the clockwork universe of Isaac Newton and Pierre-Simon Laplace. But the nodal tide and other astronomical forcings are deterministic, they do run like clockwork, and can in principle provide forecasts of future climate variation. The first conference in this series took place in Boston in 1974. From then until the Lund conference (1989), the word climate was not indexed in the proceedings. At the Newport conference (1991), El Niño was mentioned twice, and there were suggestions that as a result of hypothetical climatic HARMFUL ALGAE NEWS NO. 59 / 2018 Harmful Algae News An IOC Newsletter on Toxic Algae and Algal Blooms No. 59 - February 2018 www.ioc-unesco.org/hab Content 25 years of HAN and IPHAB...... 1 25 YEARS Harmful Algae News was first published in early 1992 in response to requests from the participants at a number of IOC meetings and pacted by harmful algal events. Since Harmful Algae News turned 20 years old in 2012, it has been a web based e-newsletter which meant longer issues were possible and back issues easily accessible. We are currently working on a searchable index for all Harmful Algae News issues. The start of Harmful Intergovernmental Panel on Harmful Algal Blooms also turned 25! During 1992, the same Year as the IOC published the first issue of Harmful Algal News, it also established an Intergovernmental Panel on Harmful Algal Blooms (IPHAB) which has met every second year since it was formed. The Panel is com A retrospective look at the early days of HAB cyst research, and a look to the future On this occasion of the 25th anniversary of the publication of Harmful Algae News, several of us were asked to look backwards in time to some of the earlier days of HAB science. One area of study that has been a ma dormant stages and that these stages might be associated with certain bottom sediments. This then brings up the question, if benthic resting stages of certain dinoflagellates actually seed coastal red tides, are there localized areas of accumulation, or what we could call seedbeds?..........The poss day, we still do not know if there are other factors at work perhaps a density-dependent or quorum-sensing type of response, or even a response to the presence of grazers or parasites. Exploration of this response has long been limited by the constraints associated with laboratory cultures, but now approach did not stand up to data at my study locations. I raise this issue in this narrative because I want to correct what I feel are unjustified recommendations that may prevent those working on cysts from obtaining the type of biological data that can advance our understanding of certain types o number of cysts in subsurface layers unable to germinate or emerge, presumably due to lack of oxygen or to the tortuous pathway posed by sediment grains and detritus. Many might think that major storms and waves can erode significant layers of sediment and transport cysts long distances, but here ag How do algal blooms kill finfish and how can we mitigate their impacts? Algal blooms, water discolorations and their association with fish kills have been recorded since historic times, such as the description in the Bible (1000 years BC) all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. A Table. 1. Economic losses from algal blooms for finfish aquaculture in different parts of the world HAB species Chattonella Heterosigma Cochlodinium polykrikoides Heterosigma Chaetoceros Heterosigma Karenia digitata Karenia mikimotoi Country Financial Losses Japan Korea, China Canada British Col emergency harvest operations. To prevent the buildup of histamines, fish should be kept alive as long as possible during harvesting. This can be achieved by diluting algal concentrations via airlift upwelling, or by targeted in-pen emergency application of clays [23] that mop up ichthyotoxins at cla As part of the 25th anniversary issue of Harmful Algal News I am providing an overview of the IOC-UNESCO Taxonomic Reference List of Harmful Algae (www. marinespecies.org/hab/) and will highlight some of the problems which have faced or are facing the Intergovernmental Panel on Harmful Algal Blooms Dinophyceae the authors intended the new genus to be described according to the botanical nomenclature. The lack of a Latin diagnosis therefore made it invalid. The confusion has actually still not been resolved, and the problem needs to be discussed and decided upon by the International Nomenclatur geographically widespread species being able to form fertile offspring, while other populations of the same species are not. Molecular techniques have contributed very significantly to solving many taxonomic problems, but they have not resulted in the emergence of a finite species concept. We have t Algal toxin discovery, management and regulation over the last 25 years Algal toxins in the dark ages (pre-1992) From a historic perspective, knowledge about algal toxins can be divided into truly prehistoric occurrences such as known from paleontological studies [1-2] and more recent historic recor lar rapid increase in known analogues has been observed for the azaspiracid (AZA) group, with the first analogue described in 1998 [64] and a review in 2014 reporting 30 analogues [65]. Only three years later, over 50 analogues are known for this group, including novel phosphate derivatives [66-71]. Butterflies in Brazil Abstracts are not always reliable guides to authors intentions. They are not expected to reveal a great deal about the evidence to be deployed in support of the science, evidence that may not even exist before deadlines for writing abstracts! Nevertheless, as examples of a mino on a decadal time scale, and identified palaeoclimatic oscillations are not necessarily a useful guide to its interpretation. An obvious obstacle to detecting climate signals in HAB data is posed by anthropogenic eutrophication. Another obstacle is the fact that phytoplankton respond directly to the trends, Karenia brevis might appear more often in the South Atlantic Bight of the US and Gymnodinium catenatum bloom more often in northwestern Iberian waters. There was also a warning by Barrie Dale germane to such speculations, that large scale climate models cannot predict local changes. Little m Red tides in Kamchatka coastal waters (Bering Sea, Russia) are a barrier for the salmon fishery and Pacific salmon Fig. 1. Map of Olyutorskiy Bay (Kamchatka, Bering Sea) where a red tide, reported by fishermen, occurred in July 2017. The stars denote fishery sites: red, affected by the bloom; green Fig. 2. Red tide in Olyutorskiy Bay on 15th July 2017 grounds of the Olyutorskiy Bay river basin performed during the second half of August showed an atypical distribution in the rivers. Maximal escapes were recorded in river basins located in the western and eastern parts of the Olyutorskiy Bay ar First report of Gambierdiscus in the Western Mediterranean Sea (Balearic Islands) Gambierdiscus (Dinophyceae) species are benthic dinoflagellates living in marine littoral zones of circumtropical areas and have recently been described in temperate waters [1]. Some species are producers of potent neu the SEASENSING (BIO2014-56024C2-2-R) project and the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. A. Tudó and A. Toldrà acknowledge IRTAURV-Banco Santander for their respective PhD grants (2016 PMF-PIPF-74 and 2015PMF-PIPF-67). The authors are grateful to Vanessa Castan and José Luis Costa for sampling Comparison by light microscopy and qPCR of potentially ichthyotoxic microalgae in Danish on-shore lagoons producing European flounder (Platichthys flesus): Pros and cons of microscopical and molecular methods Fig. 1. Lagoon used for production of European flounder at Fishlab, Denmark. Evaluation o Fig. 2. Comparison of phytoplankton species identification and cell densities (cells L-1) by qPCR (A and C) and light microscopy (target species and groups which potentially could comprise ichthyotoxic organisms) (B and D) in lagoon 1 (A and B) and lagoon 6 (C and D), respectively. The right Y-axis present in a sample then qPCR would miss those probably due to lack of a developed assay. However, LM does require high levels of taxonomic skills and the precision in identification is only as accurate as the taxonomist allows. Different taxonomists trained in different ways using different identif As qPCR measures genetic material rather than viable cells an over estimation of cell numbers can occur due to the inclusion of dead or dying cells. Problems may also occur when targeting multiple copy genes where the organism carries different numbers of the target depending on nutritional status, The Cawthron Institute Culture Collection of Micro-algae (CICCM) The CICCM is designated as a nationally significant database by the New Zealand government and so receives partial funding for its continued existence. Isolates from 13 classes of micro-algae are maintained either as live cultures or c The XVIII International Conference on Harmful Algae is approaching! It is time for nominations for achievement awards (Yasumoto Life Time and Patrick Gentien Young Scientist), registration to the conference as a student if you wish to participate in the Maureen Keller Award competition and fundraisi Forthcoming Events First announcement of the 11th International Conference on Toxic Cyanobacteria (ICTC) We are pleased to disseminate the first announcement of the 11th International Conference on Toxic Cyanobacteria (ICTC) that will be held in Krakow, Poland from May 5 10, 2019. The ICTC is a per International Coordination of Research on Harmful Algal Blooms From GEOHAB to GlobalHAB International cooperation is fundamental to advance understanding of HAB dynamics and to improve our ability to predict them. Fostering this international cooperation was the mission of GEOHAB (Global Ecology and 18th International Conference on Harmful Algae www.icha2018.com IMPORTANT DEADLINES Abstract submission deadline: 15 April 2018 Early bird registration: 15 July 2018 Get the 17 ICHA Proceedings at www.issha.org Eds-in-chief Beatriz Reguera, IEO, Vigo, Spain Eilen Bresnan, MARLAB, Scotland, UK Regi