Book Description

The Section on Ecology of Harmful Algal Blooms in the North Pacific (S-HAB) was established in October 2003, under the direction of the Marine Environmental Quality Committee, to promote the sharing of information among PICES member countries on HAB occurrences in the North Pacific. Since its formation, the Section has studied the characteristics of HAB occurrences and the differences between them in the eastern and western Pacific, including historical changes, and has provided scientific information to PICES member countries and relevant stakeholders. Over the past decades, serious damage caused by HABs has been reported with increasing frequency in the North Pacific. These blooms have adverse economic and social impacts on the aquaculture industry, human health, coastal economies, and wild fisheries. HABs have prompted routine closures of both commercial and recreational shellfish harvesting and have contributed to the deaths of aquaculture finfish, resulting in financial losses in coastal communities. However, the economic impacts generated by these events extend far beyond the industry itself. Obtaining more realistic estimates of HAB economic impacts, and the costs of preventing and managing them, calls for an integrated assessment approach that comprises the following: the economic impact of HABs on the aquaculture industry, the secondary integrated industries, and consumers, on both local and regional scales; some valuation of the costs and benefits of taking any recognized steps to lessen the HAB problem (e.g., reducing coastal pollution and other human-related activities); and weighing the costs and benefits of enhanced monitoring and surveillance that potentially reduces the magnitude of the impacts (e.g., by limiting shellfish harvesting closure windows or alteration in the timing of finfish harvesting). This publication includes presentations made at a workshop on "Economic impacts of harmful algal blooms on fisheries and aquaculture" co-convened by Drs. Chang Hoon Kim (Korea) and Vera Trainer (USA) on October 11, 2013 at the PICES 2013 Annual Meeting in Nanaimo, Canada (see Appendices 1 and 2 for a summary of the workshop and list of participants), and three additional papers on the topic submitted by scientists who were planning but were unable to attend the workshop (Appendix 3). Introduction page 1.