There are a number of HAB issues along the mid- and south-Atlantic coasts of the U.S. They include blooms of the Pfiesteria-Karlodinium complex and harmful brown tides, among others. North Carolina was the first state to report fish kills associated with an outbreak of Pfiesteria spp. Since then, Pfiesteria has been implicated in fish kills throughout the region. Fish kills attributed to Karlodinium veneficum have also occurred annually since 1998 along the Atlantic Coast, and karlotoxins have been found in samples taken from Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. In Maryland, the Pfiesteria event in 1997 resulted in about $43 million in lost seafood sales in just a four month period, primarily due to consumer fears. Brown Tides in this region are caused by Aureococcus anophagefferens and have occurred in estuaries along the east coast since the mid 1980’s, resulting in significant ecosystem and socioeconomic impacts in the region.
In the Mid- and South-Atlantic, CSCOR has supported multi-year, interdisciplinary research studies to address HAB issues. Investigations have explored the factors that regulate the dynamics of HABs and how they cause harm, developed molecular methods for better identification and detection of harmful organisms, and advanced tools for continuous, real-time detection of HAB-related environmental parameters that are critical for HAB forecasts.
