NY Sea Grant | NYSG: Harmful Algal Blooms

Dogs and Harmful Algal Blooms
After news of NYSG's "Harmful Algal Blooms and Dogs" publications was announced by the Associated Press in mid-September 2014, dozens of U.S. media outlets – daily papers, blogs magazines – followed suit, which extended the total potential reach to some 4 million people. And, thanks to reposts on Facebook and Twitter by NOAA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Cornell Cooperative Extension, over 350,000 social media users received the news in their various feeds. “It all goes back to our culture,” says author Dave MacNeill, a NYSG Fisheries Specialist from the State University of New York at Oswego. “Americans are devoted pet owners.”

Related Media:

Sea Grant Harmful Algal Blooms Info at State Parks Alerts Dog Owners to Potential Risk (July 2017) More>
On YouTube: Sometimes Beaches and Lakes Aren't Completely Safe for Your Pets (June 2016) More>
Dogs and Harmful Algal Blooms: NY Sea Grant Shares Risk Reminder for Pet Owners (May 2016) More>
To HAB or Not to HAB: Harmful Algae Are Blooming in New York's Waters (Spring/Summer 2015) More>
Sea Grant Alerts Millions of U.S. Pet Owners of Potentially Lethal Toxins in NY Waters (December 2014) More>
Dogs and Harmful Algal Blooms (Ducks Unlimited, November-December 2014) (pdf)
Toxic Algae Blooms Cause Illness, Death in Dogs (Cornell Chronicle, November 2014) More>

Related Resources:

Center for Disease Control: Harmful Algal Blooms | Click Here
New York State Department of Health: Blue-Green Algae & Health | Click Here
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation: HABs monitoring | Click Here
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation: HABs and Citizen Assistance | Click Here

On YouTube, On Blog: NYSG Harmful Algal Bloom Workshops a Model for Helping Great Lakes Stakeholders More>
New York Sea Grant-organized Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) workshops connect diverse stakeholders with HAB science experts to help mitigate the environmental and economic impacts of related outbreaks. Also featured: video footage from one of the workshops as well as pictures and blog entries from NYSG-funded researchers extending their HABs studies to the general public through teacher trainings and informal on-the-water hands-on workshops.

NYSG to Receive Nearly $2.4M for Coastal Research and Outreach More>
Sea Grant Projects on storm hazards, climate change, fisheries health, hypoxia, harmful algal blooms

Brown and Red Tide in Long Island's Waters: Summer 2012 More>
For the sixth consecutive year, the brown tide is back. Algae-filled, murky water bursting has been washing up along Long Island's South Shore this summer, most recently in parts of the Moriches and Shinnecock bays. NYSG-funded researcher Dr. Chris Gobler, an investigator and professor at Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, shares his insights.

Gobler also contributed to News 12 Long Island's "Blight on the Bays" special report in July, and we've got the YouTube clips and transcript. More>

Sound Research “Gets to the Bottom” of Hypoxia, Red Tide More>
Since Spring 2009, the Sea Grant programs of Connecticut and New York have been tracking five funded research projects that examined some of the most serious threats to the ecological health of Long Island Sound (LIS), an Estuary of National Significance. The researchers, several of them at Stony Brook University, were awarded nearly $820,000 in research grants to address the long-term problem of LIS’s low oxygen conditions (hypoxia) as well as emerging issues of red tide and the effects of climate change on the Sound’s ecosystem.

Harmful Algae Have the Right Genetic Stuff More>
This feature article in the Spring 2012 issue of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's Oceanus magazine spotlights innovative research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study was funded by NYSG, NOAA, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

NOAA and Sea Grant research featured at symposium on harmful algal blooms in NY's coastal waters More>
The symposium, held at Stony Brook-Southampton, was an opportunity for Long Island residents, as well as government and non-government agencies, to learn about the most recent information regarding harmful algal blooms and other environmental problems on Long Island.

Newsday: From Mild Winter to What's Next More>
This past winter's more milder months may lead to hardships this spring and summer, including, as described by NYSG-funded researcher and Stony Brook University (SBU) professor Dr. Christopher Gobler, an increase in algal blooms in Long Island's coastal waters. Also, SBU professor Henry Bokuniewicz says with fewer winter storms to stir up wind gusts and waves, Long Island's shoreline received a much-needed reprieve.

New $600K NOAA-funded Harmful Algal Blooms research More>

LI news and radio report on red tide detection research More>

Genome Sequence Favors Brown Tide More>
The year 2011 has been a banner one for the single-celled alga Aureococcus anophagefferens whose prolific blooms are known as “brown tide.” With concentrations in excess of 2 million cells per milliliter in some Long Island bays, this alga turned the waters brown from western Shinnecock Bay to eastern Moriches Bay, making for intense, though localized, brown tide conditions.

Summer 2011 Update: As seen in Newsday and on NBC 4 News, 'tis the Season for Brown Tide More>

Some of our recent brown tide research addresses nitrogen inputs feeding algal blooms and a breakthrough in the harmful algal bloom's genetic sequencing More>

May 2011 Research Symposium Spotlights Long Island Sound More>

As seen in Newsday, NYSG researcher studying red tide discovers a second type of harmful algae in waters off Long Island's North Shore More>

$1.28M for Long Island Sound Research More>

The Bottom is Tops: Looking at nitrogen in Peconic sediments More>

NYSG-Funded Researcher Leads Team that Publishes on First Genome of a Harmful Algal Bloom Species More>

Harmful Algal Blooms Plague Long Island Waters More>
Find out the difference among the recent Harmful algal blooms (HABs) in New York waters. HABs, which have increased in frequency, duration, and distribution in recent decades, are a worldwide phenomenon posing a significant threat to fisheries, public health, and economies.

Innovative Red and Brown Tide research seeks to better understand and manage their blooms More>

NYMSC (New York Marine Sciences Consortium) More>

A Delicate Balance More>
NYSG announces 14 new research projects for 2009, valued at $3.64 million.

Researchers Scrutinize Brown Tide Genes More>
Brown tides are part of growing world-wide incidences of harmful algal blooms, which are caused by an abundance of single-celled marine plants called phytoplankton.

Researchers of the self-assembled Aureococcus Genome Consortium (AGC) are now saying it may be something in the genetic makeup of one species of phytoplankton, the microscopic alga Aureococcus anophagefferens, that triggers the brown tide blooms that sporadically darken the waters of some of bays. Investigators believe that the organism’s genetic makeup or genome holds the key.

In the past, brown tides have caused declines in bay scallop and other shellfish populations as well as the decrease of eelgrass beds that serve as shellfish nurseries.