The Marine Institute carries out continuous monitoring of harmful algal blooms in Ireland's coastal waters to protect organisms and prevent illness. They monitor 24 sentinel sites weekly for toxic phytoplankton species like Pseudo-nitzschia and Azadinium spinosum that can produce domoic acid and azaspiracid toxins respectively. Real-time PCR testing is used to accurately identify species and detect their presence to warn shellfish farms and prevent contaminated seafood from being consumed.

1. MONITORING HARMFUL ALGAL
BLOOMS IN IRELANDS
COASTAL WATERS
By Keighley Crosthwaite

2.  The Marine Institute is a state funded agency which was set up under the
‘Marine Institute Act’ of 1991.
 Responsibilities of the Marine Institute include monitoring of Irelands
fisheries along with its inland and coastal waters.
 The MI facilities are spread out over a number of locations within Ireland,
mainly close to large fishing ports with its main headquarters in Renville
County Galway.

3.  The MI facility in Renville contains 54 research laboratories
 The MI’s services are split into a number of different functional departments:
o Marine Environment and Food Safety Services (MEFS)
o Fisheries Ecosystems Advisory Services (FEAS)
o Ocean Science and Information Services (OSIS)
o The Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO)

4.  MEFS carries out a range of marine environmental monitoring services and
provides expert advice to, as well as on behalf of government departments
and agencies with regards to maintaining Irelands seafood products to
approved standards
 Within MEFS there is a Fish Health Unit (FHU) which is responsible for the
monitoring of all fish import and exports
 Food Safety monitoring for any bacterial and viral contaminants or elevated
residue levels which may be present in Irish fish, shellfish and seafood's.
Pathogenic organisms that are regularly tested for include: E.coli, Salmonella
spp and Norovirus.
 MEFS also runs a national Harmful Algal Bloom (HABs) monitoring service to
track concentrations of any toxic producing Phytoplankton which may be
present in Irelands coastal waters

5. What are HABs?
Algal Blooms occur when optimal conditions are met for Phytoplankton
cells. These cells then grow at an accelerated rate and can cluster
together forming an ‘algal bloom’ which, are usually a natural part of our
ecosystem and provides a nutritious food source for many types of
marine life, however there are certain species of Phytoplankton which
have the ability to form harmful toxins, when blooms occur containing
these toxin-forming Phytoplankton it can have a negative impact to any
organisms that come into contact with these toxins.

6.  There are 24 marine sentinel sites from
shellfish production areas around the
country which are analysed weekly to
confirm the presence/absence of
Azadinium spinosum and six Pseudo-
nitzschia species (P.australis, P.multiseries,
P.seriata, P.pungens, P.fraudulenta and
P.delicatissima complex)
Area code Site
DL-LF-MF Muff
DL-MB-MB Mulroy Bay
DL-GE-CN Carrickfin
DL-DH-MS Mountcharles
SO-DB-DB Drumcliff Bay
MO-KB-KB Killala Bay
MO-CS-MK Murrisk
GY-KO-KO Killary Hbr Outer
GY-SB-GS Gubbaros
GY-BN-PH Poulnaclough
LH-CL-GE Carlingford Lough
Area code Site
WD-DB-DN Dungarvan North
WD-WH-AN Arthurstow n
WX-WH-WH Wexford Hbr
KY-BD-BD Ballylongford
KY-DE-DE Dingle
KY-CH-BF Banc Fluich
Roancarraig Roancarraig
CK-CE-CE Castletow nbere
CK-AM-AM Ardgroom
CK-BM-NC North Chapel
CK-DB-DI Dunmanus Inner
CK-RB-RB Roaringw ater bay
CK-ON-ON Oysterhaven
Area code Site

7. Toxin forming phytoplankton regularly screened for by the MI The
diatom Pseudo-nitschia spp (left) and the dinoflagellate Azadinium
spinosum(right)
.

8.  Pseudo-nitschia spp produces Domoic acid
which, when ingested can cause amnesic
shellfish poisoning (ASP).
 Symptoms of ASP include nausea,
vomiting, gastrointestinal complaints with
more severe cases resulting in permanent
neurological damage and even death

9. Azadinium spinosum produces the toxin known as
Azaspiracid.
IN 1995, eight people were reported to have fallen ill
with ASP-like symptoms after eating mussels which were
harvested in Killary Harbor, Ireland.
After conducting bio toxin analysis on the shellfish it was
determined that azaspiracid was the compound causing
the illness.
The term used to describe people afflicted with this
toxin is azaspiracid poisoning (AZP)

11.  Sample log in and generation of test identification code (TIC)
 Pellet formation
 Preparation of species specific master mixes with fluorescently labelled
probes
 Extraction process (extra step required for Pseudo-nitschia spp. Involving
freeze/thaw using Liquid Nitrogen)
 Preparing a PCR template with species specific master mix and extracted
samples
 Running of real time PCR programme and reading the generated results

12. Plate
location
Cq Call
A1 - NEGATIVE
A2 - NEGATIVE
A3 - NEGATIVE
A4 - NEGATIVE
A5 - NEGATIVE
A6 35.69 POSITIVE
A7 - NEGATIVE
A8 - NEGATIVE
A9 - NEGATIVE
A10 - NEGATIVE
A11 - NEGATIVE
A12 - NEGATIVE
B1 - NEGATIVE
B2 - NEGATIVE
B3 - NEGATIVE
B4 - NEGATIVE
B5 - NEGATIVE
B6 34.75 POSITIVE
B7 - NEGATIVE
B8 - NEGATIVE
G1 26.21 POSITIVE
G2 25.12 POSITIVE
G3 - NEGATIVE
G4 - NEGATIVE
G5 - NEGATIVE

13. Target DNA Tm°C
P.australis 63
P.fraudulenta 63
P.delicatissma 58
P.pungens 60
P.multiseries 65
P.seriata 56

14.  SUMMARY
The marine Institute carries out continuous monitoring of all seafood’s produced in
Irelands waters to prevent illness or harm to any organisms whom may feed on these
seafood’s.
The MI aims to both protect and harness the oceans wealth for the benefit of both
our environment as well as our economy

15.  With regard to the monitoring of harmful algae the MI provides a public
service In order to prevent humans or animals from feeding on potentially
toxic seafoods, also providing both shellfish and finfish sites around Ireland
with predictions of possible harmful blooms which might occur in their area
Real-time PCR gives a more accurate species identification than microscopy
methods alone , although it is a costly and time consuming process and it
also depends on a high level of concentration and aseptic skill from the
operator.

16.  References:
 Azaspiracid poisoning (AZP) toxins in shellfish: Toxicological and health considerations .
[ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0041010109004607. [Accessed 22 May
2016].

 Amnesic shellfish poisoning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesic_shellfish_poisoning. [Accessed 22 May 2016].

 Infrastructure & Facilities | Marine Institute. 2016. Infrastructure & Facilities | Marine
Institute. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.marine.ie/Home/site-area/infrastructure-
facilities/infrastructure-facilities. [Accessed 22 May 2016].

 SeaWeb - Ocean Briefing Book. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.seaweb.org/resources/briefings/algae.php. [Accessed 21 May 2016].

 Marine Institute Open Access Repository: The diatom Pseudo-nitzschia (Peragallo) in Irish
waters. [ONLINE] Available at: http://oar.marine.ie/handle/10793/805. [Accessed 21 May
2016