Scientists with the ÌìÃÀÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½ and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration deployed a new tool this week that will constantly be on the lookout for harmful algal blooms and their toxins off the coast of La Push, Washington.

The Environmental Sample Processor, or ESP, was deployed May 23 for the first time off the Pacific Northwest coast with sensors to monitor specific algal species and a harmful toxin they emit, domoic acid. The tool will provide autonomous, near-real-time measurements of the amount of toxin and the concentrations of six potentially harmful algal species.

The instrument was placed 13 miles offshore in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. It is near the Juan de Fuca eddy, and in a where offshore Pseudo-nitzschia blooms – a common Pacific harmful algal species – travel to coastal beaches where they can contaminate shellfish. The tool sits about 50 feet below the surface near the , first deployed by researchers from NOAA and the UW Applied Physics Laboratory in 2010 to measure other variables such as temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, currents and acidity.

, an oceanographer at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory, led the deployment of the new instrument with , a scientist at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, as part of a larger collaborative project.

The was developed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to automate water-testing that normally requires a boat trip to sea and lab analyses. MBARI scientist Roman Marin helped install the instrument that will beam results back to shore three times a week for the next six weeks. The research team will collect the tool in July, and then deploy another to monitor during the late summer season.

The installation of new technology to monitor harmful algal blooms in the Pacific Northwest comes after a in 2015, and worries that such events could become under climate change.

The on bloom toxicity and algal species biomass will be made available directly to state coastal managers and public health officials, including coastal tribes, through the website of the UW-based , or NANOOS.

Coastal managers will use early warning data from the instrument to inform proactive shellfish toxicity testing, and facilitate timely decision-making on shellfish harvesting opportunities and closures.

“Anyone can access the data in near-real-time,” said , an oceanographer at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory and affiliate faculty member in the UW School of Oceanography, and director of NANOOS. “It’s an early warning sentry.”

The new data will also be made available to UW oceanographers to help develop a computer forecast, , that simulates how currents travel and affect local marine conditions along Washington’s coast and into Puget Sound and Canada’s Strait of Georgia.

The new tool’s deployment is part of a collaborative project led by the UW and NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and funded by the NOAA-led U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System. Partners include NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, NANOOS, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Florida-based Spyglass Technologies, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Bellingham’s Northwest Indian College.

Ship time aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson to deploy the tool was provided by the UW School of Oceanography, and the crew included undergraduate students from the UW and the Northwest Indian College.

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For more information, contact Mickett at jmickett@apl.washington.edu or 206-897-1795, Newton at newton@apl.washington.edu or 206-543-9152, and Moore at 206-860-3327 or stephanie.moore@noaa.gov.

See a related on NOAA’s website.

The , through its education partner the ÌìÃÀÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½, is deploying an oceanographic observing buoy in Bellingham Bay this week that will allow students both hands-on experience with the technology as well as the ability to study the data from their computers, through the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems, .

“It’s impressive to see NWIC students helping Western and UW collect important data from our oceans,” said Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island. “The collaboration between these three schools is key to monitoring what goes on in these waters.”

The goals of the Center for Coastal Margin Observation and Prediction are to transcend traditional scientific, educational and societal boundaries to understand complex coastal margin issues. Through the organization, Northwest Indian College students have joined UW students on oceanography research cruises out of the UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories.

UW worked with Northwest Indian College, Western Washington University and the Lummi Nation Natural Resources Department to site the buoy and design its features. The buoy will provide the oceanographic data needed to understand fluctuations in harvested species like Dungeness crab and clams.

“NWIC students are excited about this project because it blends the latest technology with the needs of the Lummi community. This buoy will give students real-time, place-based data that can provide environmental context for in-class and capstone research. For many years NWIC students have enjoyed oceanographic opportunities provided by UW and CMOP; through this buoy we will continue this partnership. In fact, a number of students have stated that going on these cruises solidified their desire to become marine scientists,” said Marco Hatch, director of the Salish Sea Research Center at NWIC.

“This program is a great example of Pacific Northwest ingenuity at its best,” Ranker said. “These smart students and resourceful schools are helping to ensure the health of one of our most precious resources.”

The Lummi Nation has given a name to the buoy, Se’lhaem. Se’lhaem was an island located near the mouth of the Nooksack River, but disappeared some time ago. The island was important to the Lummi community as a place for harvesting butter clams, horse clams and cockles.

“This has been such a great project, to bring together students to gain very real experience with technology and science, to work with so many partners, and to provide much needed high-quality data about this part of the Salish Sea. Best of all, it will be a lasting legacy,” said project lead , a UW oceanographer.

UW will work collectively with Western and Northwest Indian College to maintain the buoy, engaging students from all three institutions. Western research vessels will be used to deploy and maintain the buoy.

“We expect the data sets to be used in multiple classes at Western, and for students to have opportunities to participate in turnaround cruises, where they’ll experience how oceanography is done in the real world,” said Erika McPhee-Shaw, director of Western’s .

“Once these data sets have been streaming for a few years their value will be immense. It is difficult to overstate the new understanding we gain of hour-to-hour and week-to-week variability, the true ‘ocean weather’ of the system, that we can only start to see when we implement in-situ observing system systems like this one.”

The buoy will measure a host of atmospheric measurements (wind and air pressure, for example) and has sensors to measure conditions in the bay such as temperature, salinity, oxygen, pH and chlorophyll. These data are valuable to understanding the base of the marine ecosystem, but also issues such as hypoxia (lack of oxygen) and ocean acidification (reduction of pH).

Data will be available to the public as part of .

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For more information, contact Newton at janewton@uw.edu or 206-713-5214.