Researchers on trail of toxic algae blooms off coast

Swirling ocean currents 25 miles off the tip of Washington state are producing toxic algae blooms that have contaminated razor-clam beds, sickened people and killed wildlife.

The blooms were first noted in 1991, after a large number of seabirds washed up dead on the Olympic Peninsula. Several residents of the Long Beach Peninsula in Southwest Washington suffered flulike symptoms after eating razor clams that year.

Researchers at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle and at the University of Washington say that the blooms may originate in a 40-mile-wide offshore ocean whirlpool called the Juan de Fuca eddy. Fall storms push surface waters and algae toward the coast, said Vera Trainer, program manager of the marine-biotoxin group at the center.

Finding out where the blooms begin and how currents push them ashore are the first steps toward predicting future instances of contamination, Trainer said.

"The hope is to develop models for harmful algal-bloom transport to the Washington coast so that we become kind of a weather service — a predictive service — for harmful algal blooms. But we got a long way to go for that," Trainer said.

The algae make a toxin called domoic acid, which affects cells in the brain. Eating acid-contaminated razor clams can cause a range of health problems including severe and lifelong short-term memory loss, and death in some cases. A 1987 outbreak in Montreal linked to acid-laden mussels from Prince Edward Island killed at least four people; some other victims were so disabled by brain damage that they had to spend the rest of their lives in nursing care.

Without an ability to predict the blooms, fisheries authorities can only monitor clam toxin levels and close fisheries when the need arises. But if they knew that a bloom was coming, they could open the season early and close it before the bloom came, or take other pre-emptive action, Trainer said.

The blooms are hard to predict because they don't happen every year or at regular intervals.

Shellfish-toxin resources State Department of Health marine-biotoxin bulletin: ww4.doh.wa.gov/gis/ biotoxin.htm or 800-562-5632. State Department of Fish and Wildlife's shellfish hotline: 866-880-5431.

"Why certain years and not other years? So we're hoping to understand some of those questions," Trainer said.

Barbara Hickey, a professor of oceanography at the University of Washington, says the algae only sometimes produce the toxic acid. Scientists suspect the algae secrete the acid only when faced with lower levels of nutrients because the acid helps the algae collect iron, which is important for photosynthesis.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife and Department of Health monitor domoic acid in razor clams throughout the year and make sure clams are safe before a recreational harvest is opened. The duration and timing of openings depends on the size of the razor-clam population.

Seasons typically open in late March or early April and again in October or November, said Bill Cleland, a public-health adviser with the state Health Department.

High levels of acid in 1998 closed every beach in the state to clam digging for 12 months. Coastal communities that depend on the tourist dollars that clam diggers spend, and tribes that harvest clams commercially and for subsistence, were hit hard.

"That closure was devastating both culturally and economically to the Quinaults," said Joe Schumacker, a marine biologist with the Quinault Indian Nation. "Hundreds of thousands of dollars were at stake, and it's money that goes right into people's pockets."

Olympic Peninsula tribes take 50 percent of the harvest, and the Quinault Nation runs a commercial razor-clam cannery.

The recreational razor-clam fishery brings $12 million a year in tourist spending to the peninsula's coastal communities, according to the Olympic Region Harmful Algal Blooms Partnership, a coalition of state and federal agencies, universities, and the Quinaults that since 2000 has been monitoring blooms at seven sites along the peninsula.

Smaller closures happened in fall 1993 and 1994 and in spring 2001.

The new discoveries are appearing in this month's issue of the journal Limnology and Oceanography.

The Juan de Fuca eddy's toxic inhabitants soon will be the subject of intensive research. Hickey, Trainer and collaborators from other U.S. and Canadian institutions received an $8.7 million grant to spend the next five years investigating offshore sources of algae blooms.

They'll take twice-yearly research cruises to the eddy area and also deploy automated buoys to measure ocean currents, temperature, salinity, algal concentration, and other biological, physical and chemical quantities.

Eran Karmon: 206-464-2155 or ekarmon@seattletimes.com.