Taking the Long View for Oceans and Human Health Connection through Community Driven Science

Communicating ocean and human health connections: An agenda for research and practice

The emergence of ocean and human health (OHH) science as a distinct scholarly discipline has led to increased research outputs from experts in both the natural and social sciences. Formal research on communication strategies, messaging, and campaigns related to OHH science remains limited despite its importance as part of the social processes that can make knowledge actionable. When utilized to communicate visible, local issues for targeting audiences, OHH themes hold the potential to motivate action in pursuit of solutions to environmental challenges, supplementing efforts to address large-scale, abstract, or politicized issues such as ocean acidification or climate change. Probing peer-reviewed literature from relevant areas of study, this review article outlines and reveals associations between society and the quality of coastal and marine ecosystems, as well as key themes, concepts, and findings in OHH science and environmental communication. Recommendations for future work concerning effective ocean and human health science communication are provided, creating a platform for innovative scholarship, evidence-based practice, and novel collaboration across disciplines.

Assessing a model of Pacific Northwest harmful algal bloom transport as a decision-support tool

In the Pacific Northwest, blooms of the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia (PN) sometimes produce domoic acid, a neurotoxin that causes amnesic shellfish poisoning, leading to a Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) event. The Pacific Northwest (PNW) HAB Bulletin project, a partnership between academic, government, and tribal stakeholders, uses a combination of beach and offshore monitoring data and ocean forecast modeling to better understand the formation, evolution, and transport of HABs in this region. This project produces periodic Bulletins to inform local stakeholders of current and forecasted conditions. The goal of this study was to help improve how the forecast model is used in the Bulletin's preparation through a retrospective particle-tracking experiment. Using past observations of beach PN cell counts, events were identified that likely originated in the Juan de Fuca eddy, a known PN hotspot, and then particle tracks were used in the model to simulate these events. A variety of "beaching definitions" were tested, based on both water depth and distance offshore, to define when a particle in the model was close enough to the coast that it was likely to correspond to cells appearing in the intertidal zone and in shellfish diets, as well as a variety of observed PN cell thresholds to determine what cell count should be used to describe an event that would warrant further action. The skill of these criteria was assessed by determining the fraction of true positives, true negatives, false positives, and false negatives within the model in comparison with observations, as well as a variety of derived model performance metrics. This analysis suggested that for our stakeholders' purposes, the most useful beaching definition is the 30 m isobath and the most useful PN cell threshold for coincident field-based sample PN density estimates is 10,000 PN cells/L. Lastly, the performance of a medium-resolution (1.5 km horizontal resolution) version of the model was compared with that of a high-resolution (0.5 km horizontal resolution) version, the latter currently used in forecasting for the PNW HAB Bulletin project. This analysis includes a direct comparison of the two model resolutions for one overlapping year (2017). These results suggested that a narrower, more realistic beaching definition is most useful in a high-resolution model, while a wider beaching definition is more appropriate in a lower resolution model like the medium-resolution version used in this analysis. Overall, this analysis demonstrated the importance of incorporating stakeholder needs into the statistical approach in order to generate the most effective decision-support information from oceanographic modeling.

Living in relationship with the Ocean to transform governance in the UN Ocean Decade

Humanity's relationship with the Ocean needs to be transformed to effectively address the multitude of governance crises facing the Ocean, including overfishing, climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction. Earth law, including Rights of Nature, provides a pathway to center humanity as a part of Nature and transform our relationship from one of dominion and separateness towards holism and mutual enhancement. Within the Earth law framework, an Ocean-centered approach views humanity as interconnected with the Ocean, recognizes societies' collective duty and reciprocal responsibility to protect and conserve the Ocean, and puts aside short-term gain to respect and protect future generations of all life and the Ocean's capacity to regenerate and sustain natural cycles. This Essay presents Ocean-centered governance as an approach to help achieve the 10 challenges for collective impact put forward as part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and therefore living in a harmonious relationship with the Ocean.

Socioeconomic disruptions of harmful algal blooms in indigenous communities: The case of Quinault Indian nation

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have been a pervasive challenge across coastal communities of the U.S. West Coast in recent years negatively affecting local economies and livelihoods. We focus on the effects of HABs to the Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) triggered by Pseudo-nitzschia that produce the toxin domoic acid (DA). This toxin accumulates in filter feeders and poses threats to human health via shellfish consumption. Consumption of razor clams with high levels of DA and Dungeness crab that prey on them can cause amnesic shellfish poisoning in humans and therefore requires closure of commercial, recreational and subsistence fisheries, postponing or limiting harvesting seasons. These disruptions result in significant losses in revenues along with negative effects to sociocultural dimensions of key importance to coastal communities. Livelihoods and wellbeing of tribal communities are affected disproportionately due to higher vulnerability and reliance on these marine resources for subsistence. We assess these effects at multiple levels for the QIN and discuss and reflect, through a tribal lens, upon advances and opportunities for impact mitigation and adaptation in the face of HABs, along with persisting challenges.

The value of monitoring in efficiently and adaptively managing biotoxin contamination in marine fisheries

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) can produce biotoxins that accumulate in seafood species targeted by commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries and pose an increasing risk to public health as well as fisher livelihoods, recreational opportunities, and food security. Designing biotoxin monitoring and management programs that protect public health with minimal impacts to the fishing communities that underpin coastal livelihoods and food systems is critically important, especially in regions with worsening HABs due to climate change. This study reviews the history of domoic acid monitoring and management in the highly lucrative U.S. West Coast Dungeness crab fishery and highlights three changes made to these programs that efficiently and adaptively manage mounting HAB risk: (1) expanded spatial-temporal frequency of monitoring; (2) delineation of clear management zones; and (3) authorization of evisceration orders as a strategy to mitigate economic impacts. Simulation models grounded in historical data were used to measure the value of monitoring information in facilitating efficient domoic acid management. Power analysis confirmed that surveys sampling 6 crabs (the current protocol) have high power to correctly diagnose contamination levels and recommend appropriate management actions. Across a range of contamination scenarios, increasing the spatial-temporal frequency of monitoring allowed management to respond more quickly to changing toxin levels and to protect public health with the least impact on fishing opportunities. These results highlight the powerful yet underutilized role of simulation testing and power analysis in designing efficient biotoxin monitoring programs, demonstrating the credibility of these programs to stakeholders, and justifying their expense to policymakers.