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 possibility of benthic seed populations and seedbeds for at least some Gonyaulax (=Alexandrium) and Pyrodinium has a much higher probability than for Gymnodinium breve........ It would seem that this avenue of research should have a high priority among phytoplankton systematists and ecologists. As a graduate student sitting in the audience, I was motivated by these talks and papers and immediately started to look at my own research from a new perspective. At the time, I was in a water chemistry laboratory doing trace metal (copper) sensitivity experiments with my Alexandrium cultures, reasoning that there was some chemical process that could explain the link between Alexandrium blooms, river runoff, and low salinity coastal waters (I still believe that this is the case, but I dropped this line of inquiry and it has not been pursued to any significant extent since). Many of my cultures contained rounded, non-motile cells, which I thought could be cysts, but no cyst stage had yet been described for A. catenella. Fortunately for me, Woods Hole was a short drive away for me, so I was able to bring my cultures to Dave Wall. After a quick examination, he gave me the disappointing news that these were not what he would term true cysts, but rather a temporary stage with much thinner walls (he and I eventually named these pellicle cysts after the resistant layer that surrounds them [5]). Next, one of those pivotal moments in a career occurred in which luck or good fortune played a role. Instead of just sending me back to my lab with this negative news, Dave suggested that we sample a nearby salt pond where PSP toxicity had been recurrent in the years after the big 1972 bloom. We collected surface sediments with an old plankton net that was dragged across the bottom, and Dave demonstrated the sonication and sieving method. In short order, we were looking at a number of unknown cysts types that I set about trying to isolate and germinate. One produced an elongate cell (Fig. 4) that after germinating, HARMFUL ALGAE NEWS NO. 59 / 2018 ultimately divided to produce cells of Alexandrium catenella. I was already aware of the importance of this discovery after the talks and papers of Wall and Steidinger, and now I had proof that at least some of their speculations were valid. The door was suddenly open to some very exciting and new Fig. 2. David Wall, an early pioneer in dinoflagellate cysts, collecting work with living cysts from settling trays in Woods Hole in 1974 cysts, and this new perspective on Alexandrium bloom dy- decreased enough to be favorable for namics totally changed the directions of germination remained a mystery. Only my thesis research. Furthermore, I had in recent years have we begun to underfound perfect study locations for my stand that mature Alexandrium cysts work the Cape Cod salt ponds where can re-enter dormancy one cause may these blooms occurred regularly every be unfavorably warm summer temperayear, and in which they were localized tures. But we have also learned that due to restricted tidal exchange with exit from that dormant state into quiesnearby coastal waters. We continue to cence (a state in which cysts will germiwork in these systems today they are nate if conditions are favorable) occurs essentially natural mesocosms. Several in response to a quantifiable amount publications ensued [5,6], accompanied of chilling. By quantifying the duration by a paper by Barrie Dale [7] who had and severity of cold, A. catenella tracks left Woods Hole and was working inde- the passage of winter, delaying germipendently on this same species using nation until spring when the outlook is sediment from Norway. more favorable for bloom success. This In one of these papers [6], I was able groundbreaking work by one of my to document the extreme seasonality of students, Alexis Fischer, demonstrates Alexandrium blooms in the salt pond, that dinoflagellate cysts possess physiraising fundamental questions about ological behavior that is similar to that the mechanisms underlying the pat- observed in terrestrial plants where a terns of excystment and encystment. I period of chilling is needed for optimal characterized the mandatory dormancy seed germination, bud flowering, or interval, which begins at cyst formation bulb emergence [9]. We now know that and can last several weeks to months Alexandrium cysts can cycle between until maturation is completed. Cysts quiescence and dormancy multiple were unable to germinate during this times as seasons and years progress, interval, thus explaining the absence of and equally importantly, that the freAlexandrium cells in the water column quency and timing of the cycling may in the months following each spring well be determined by the history of the bloom. What remained a mystery was chilling those cysts experience. Recent why the bulk of the Alexandrium cysts work by Cary López on Pyrodinium bain bottom sediment did not germinate hamense is revealing a similar environlater in the summer or fall or even early mentally-induced cycling behavior in winter after they had matured, but in- tropical dinoflagellate cysts. stead remained in a resting state until Those early days as a graduate stuthe next spring. One part of the answer dent and then as a postdoc were times was found some years later when we of rapid discoveries, as nothing was showed that high temperatures can in- known about the distribution of Alexhibit cyst germination [8]. Yet, the ab- andrium cysts in the region, or of the sence of a major bloom in the late sum- role of temperature, nutrients, light, mer and fall when temperatures had oxygen, and other environmental pa- 5 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