W5: MEQ Workshop (1 day, co-sponsored by IOC)
Developing a North Pacific HAB data resource II
Co-Convenors: Henrik Enevoldsen (IOC Secretariat), Hak-Gyoon Kim (Korea) and Vera Trainer (U.S.A.)
Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are comprised of rapidly growing toxic and non-toxic species, and affect the marine ecology and economy of coastal nations. Monitoring and research activities aimed towards achieving effective predictive and mitigative strategies are underway in each PICES member nation, in many cases dealing with similar organisms or problems. These efforts will benefit from building a common data resource among PICES nations that allow inter-comparison of HAB species composition and the magnitude of environmental and economic impacts. At last year's joint PICES/IOC Workshop on "Harmful algal blooms - Harmonization of data", representatives from PICES member countries accepted an offer from IOC/ICES to utilize their successful harmful algal event meta-database (HAE-DAT) format on a trial basis. The goal of this workshop is to provide an interim "report card" on the use of this database. The central tasks are: (i) to ascertain how well the database process worked; (ii) to identify any difficulties in data delivery from member nations; (iii) to assess the effectiveness of the interactive web-based window to the developing resource; and (iv) to determine if further modifications are needed to encompass unique aspects of Pacific Rim marine resources.