Regional Workshop on Monitoring and Management Strategies for Benthic HABs if possible, establish tools for standardized procedures. The exercise is open to the entire international community. The goal of achieving improved assessments of the risks associated with BHABs will help reduce the health, societal and economic impacts, promote sustainable safe seafood, contributing to the achievement of United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) worldwide. For more information or for those interested in participating in the sampling exercise, contact Yasmine Bottein (M-Y.Bottein@iaea.org) and Rodolphe Lemée (rodolphe.lemee@obs-vlfr.fr) In the last decades, important advances Participants and experts attended from in the prevention of the adverse im- Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Copacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs) lombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, have been achieved by surveillance Fiji, France, Guatemala, Indonesia, Italy, programs that monitor HAB species Kuwait, Malaysia, Marshall Island, Mauin the environment as well as toxins ritius, Mexico, Monaco, Nicaragua, Pakiin seafood and associated human dis- stan, Panama, Philippines, Seychelles, eases. Currently, strategies are well de- Spain, Thailand, Tunisia, United-States, fined with specific guidelines to moni- Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, and from tor harmful phytoplankton species and United Nation organizations FAO and control their synthesized biotoxins in WHO (Fig 1). marine products and freshwater resBefore the meeting, surveys were ervoirs. However, the situation is very distributed to the participants, to idenAcknowledgements different for benthic HAB (BHABs) mi- tify the main gaps as well as available croalgae such as species belonging to tools in their own regions. The out- The International Atomic Energy Agenthe dinoflagellate genera Gambierdis- comes of this survey were used to struc- cy is grateful to the Government of the cus, associated with ciguatera fish poi- ture group exercises introduced by ex- Principality of Monaco for the support soning, and Ostreopsis, whose blooms perts lectures. Furthermore, a practical provided to its Environment Laboratoconstitute a potential emergent threat demonstration and analysis of different ries. especially in the Mediterranean. CFP sampling methods for benthic microremains today the most common non- algae were provided. Altogether, the Authors bacterial food poisoning globally with workshop contributed to improve the Patricia A Tester, Ocean Tester, LLC, BeauSmall Island Developing States (SIDS) skills of the participants in establishing fort, North Carolina, USA being the most vulnerable. Changes in a need-based monitoring program for climate may exacerbate the impacts. toxic BHABs, in a risk assessment per- Marie-Yasmine Dechraoui-Bottein, IAEA Environment Laboratories, 4 Quai Antoine With the objective to identify the spective. As a continuation of the work- 1er, 98000 Monaco main gaps that limit monitoring of shop a sampling method intercompariBHAB species and their toxins in the son exercise was designed. Artificial Rodolphe Lemée, Sorbonne Universite, most affected areas and define the substrate kits were distributed among CNRS-INSU, Laboratoire dOceanographie de Villefranche, LOV UMR 7093, F-06230 Ville best approaches to prevent and man- participants to conduct sampling in Franche sur mer, France age their impacts, a workshop was held their areas in parallel to sampling natuduring the Monacos Ocean Week 9-12 ral substrates (macroalgae). The results Corresponding author: April 2018, at the Oceanographic Muse- will help inform sampling methods and ocean.tester@gmail.com um of Monaco. The workshop focused on three major topics: benthic species surveillance, monitoring of toxins in marine resources and, seafood and epidemiology. The workshop was organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, www.iaea.org) in partnership with RAMOGE (www.ramoge. org), IOC-SCOR GlobalHAB (www.globalhab.info) and NOAA. It was attended by more than 60 participants including scientists and coastal managers from more than 30 countries joining IAEA Technical Cooperation projects from Asia-Pacific (RAS7026), Africa (RAF7014), Latin America and Fig. 1. Participants in the Regional Workshop on Monitoring and Management Strategies for Benthic the Caribbean (RLA7022). HABs, Monaco, 9-12 April 2018 16 HARMFUL ALGAE NEWS NO. 60 / 2018 Harmful Algae News An IOC Newsletter on Toxic Algae and Algal Blooms No. 60 - July 2018 www.ioc-unesco.org/hab Marine eukaryote and HAB monitoring in Japan with next generation technology Sequencing technologies such as Illumina MiSeq have made it possible to obtain billions of sequence reads in a Frequency distribution (%) the surface data was used in this study. Surface seawater (0.5 L) was collected weekly with a plastic bucket during the same period. For MPS-based monitoring based on amplicon-seq of 18S-rRNA gene (V79 region), PCR amplification and 454 pyrosequencing were performed accor Inland Sea, 2-17-5 Maruishi, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima 739-045, Japan Hiroshi Shimada, Central Fisheries Research Institute of Hokkaido Research Organization, Hamanaka-cho 238, Yoichi, Hokkaido 0468555, Japan Seiji Katakura, City of Mombetsu, Kaiyo-koryukan, Kaiyo-koen, Mombetsu, Hokkaido 094-0031, Jap Quantifying dinoflagellate cysts in bottom sediments: a response to Anderson 2018 Problems associated with quantifying dinoflagellate cysts in bottom sediments featured prominently in Don Anderson s personal retrospective view of his contribution to the early days of HAB cyst research published rece viously, sample sites should be chosen to avoid such areas if possible. Clearly, there is room for questions or criticism when this dynamic system is modelled from the assumption that bottom sediments, for example in Anderson s work in The Gulf of Maine, are in a static stable condition whereby a sa Contribution of marine invertebrates to Ciguatera poisoning : the case study of French Polynesia Reported as early as the 15th century by explorers, ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is the most prominent non-bacterial seafood poisoning worldwide. Widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, CFP res au développement du phytoplancton ciguatérigène en Polynésie française: CARISTO-Pf n7937/MSR/REC of 4th of December 2015 and Arrêté nHC/491/ DIE/BPT of 30th March 2016). Figure 2. Comparison of Pacific ciguatoxins (P-CTXs) profiles in A) in vitro cultures of Gambierdiscus polynesiensis (TB-92 [14]) Solid Phase Adsorption Toxin Tracking (SPATT) technology for field monitoring of Gambierdiscus toxins with passive samplers Ciguatera poisoning is a seafood intoxication classically associated with the consumption of tropical coral reef fish contaminated with ciguatoxins (CTXs), although some marine Fig. 2. Summary of the results demonstrating that SPATT passive sampling could advantageously contribute to the reinforcement of ciguateric risk assessment and management programmes as a supplementary tool. or of very low densities of toxic Gambierdiscus cells. However, CTXs were detected in numero New limits of Ostreopsis distribution in the Bay of Biscay: a first report of Ostreopsis in Santander Bay, Cantabria (Northern Spain) Fig. 1. Location of sampling sites The genus Ostreopsis encompasses benthic dinoflagellates that represent one of the main microalgal threats for beach tourism in w Bloom of Ostreopsis cf. siamensis in Lisbon Bay Fig. 1. Sampling sites on Lisbon Bay Reports of benthic HAB events have increased during the last decade in temperate regions. These have been associated with proliferations of benthic toxic dinoflagellates, in particular species of Ostreopsis. The M Table1 1- List - List the macroalgaecommunity communityspecies species Table ofof the macroalgae ITSA and ITSB primers [6]. Phylogenetic analysis (not Asparagopsis armata Corallina sp. shown) revealed that all the Caulacanthus ustulatus Cystoseira sp. studied sequences grouped Ceramiacea Derbesia s A possible link between the breakdown of a fertilizer tank and a toxic Pseudonitzschia bloom fishery, leaving toxic blooms undetected in other areas. By the time of the bloom, the diatom community primarily consisted of P. seriata (Fig. 3). Identification of P. seriata as the potential culprit diat Fig. 3. Pseudo-nitzschia seriata TEM micrograph of the poroid structure arranged within the striae consisting of two outer rows of larger poroids and one or two inner rows of smaller poroids. induce DA production in P. australis [7], and the most potent DA-inducing N form has been shown to be urea. Golden alga Prymnesium parvum Carter bloom off Azhikode, southwest India In September 2009, during the southwest monsoon season, a quasi-monospecific bloom of Prymnesium parvum was collected off Azhikode (10o 11 02 N; 76o 09 22 E), on the southwest coast of India (Fig. 1). A conspicuous pale browni Regional Workshop on Monitoring and Management Strategies for Benthic HABs if possible, establish tools for standardized procedures. The exercise is open to the entire international community. The goal of achieving improved assessments of the risks associated with BHABs will help reduce the health, Workshop on morpho-molecular methods for the study of dinoflagellate cysts A workshop on techniques for the morphological and molecular identification of cysts from toxic HAB species, led by Drs Kenneth Neil Mertens, Kirsty Smith, Lesley Rhodes and Lincoln MacKenzie, was held recently at the Cawthro Cawthron Summer Scholar Explores Bloom-Forming Freshwater Cyano bacteria Globally, cyanobacteria blooms in freshwater environments are causing water quality problems and health risks with increasing frequency. New Zealand is no stranger to this, suffering from blooms of toxin-producing cyanobacteria Canadian HAB Scientists Hold Workshop to Establish National Priorities and Develop Research Network A National Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) workshop was organized and chaired by Dr. Ian Perry at the Institute of Ocean Sciences (IOS), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Sidney, British Columbia, July 11- Joint FAO, IAEA, IOC and WHO Technical Meeting for the development of an InterAgency Global Ciguatera Strategy Harmful Algae News has previously brought information on an initiative between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Environment Laboratories in Monaco jointly with the Oceanographi 12th Advanced Phytoplankton Course - APC 12 Identification, Taxonomy, Systematics Roscoff Biological Station (France) - 19th May to 8th June 2019 APC12 is organized by the Station Biologique de Roscoff together with the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn and the IOC Science and Communication Centre on H ICHA 2018 News: 669 abstracts evaluated ! 250 orals + 45 ignite talks selected and participants notified ICHA 2018 News: 669 abstracts evaluated ! 9 plenaries confirmed 250 orals + 45 ignite talks selected and participants notified 3 satellite sessions 9 plenaries confirmed 3 satellite sessions