Happy Spring Everyone!
We hope you all have had a great winter! We are excited that Spring is here, and field season is fast approaching. We have already received some samples from our amazing community monitors. Our updates will be coming out weekly starting now through the rest of the summer. We will also be sending in shellfish for toxin testing twice every month and will be sharing the results in these updates. A reminder to all that we are sending in wild shellfish for harmful algal bloom related toxin testing. Commercial shellfish is regulated through the Department of Environmental Conservation and is considered safe for consumption.
During the month of April, in Kachemak Bay, Chaetocerous and Thalassiosira have been the dominate species in our samples. The only two harmful algal bloom species that we’ve seen so far this season are Pseudo-nitzschia and Dinophysis. We saw Chaetoceros blooming first this year in Sadie Cove in the end of March – the spring bloom has happened!
For more information on the April 1st Phytoplankton Update and the Qualitative Analysis of Phytoplankton Data, click here