Researchers share Alaska Forum award for Aleutian toxin monitoring
March 26, 2012
The Alaska Forum on the Environment presented its 2012 Outstanding Achievement Award
to researchers who led the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning
(PSP) Project.
The award was presented to researchers Bruce Wright, senior scientist with the Aleutian
Pribilof Islands Association, and to Ray RaLonde, aquaculture specialist with the
Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program at the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.
With funding from the North Pacific Research Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, the researchers conducted the first extensive community-based monitoring for
harmful algal blooms and PSP in waters around the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands region
in Alaska and Bering Island in Russia.
They developed methods for communities to monitor and track marine toxins in connection
with climate change observations, and published their findings in near real time for
residents and scientists. Overall, the project helped communities reliant on subsistence
shellfish harvests better respond to the health threat and minimize the risk of poisoning.
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