WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt announced that the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) will receive $365,982 in federal funding for a research effort to control red tide blooms in the Outer Cape’s Nauset Marsh System.

“This research and its potential to control or prevent red tide outbreaks at Nauset Inlet are extremely important to not only the Cape’s shellfishing industry, but that of the entire northeast,” Delahunt said.  “If we can figure this out at Nauset, there is broader hope for minimizing the impacts of much larger red tide events along the Atlantic coast.”

"We are very excited to receive the funding to test what is actually a very simple approach to reducing the risk or impact of red tides in shallow, isolated areas like the Nauset Marsh System”, said Don Anderson, Senior Scientist in the WHOI Biology department and director of CINAR, the cooperative institute for the North Atlantic region.  "We think the environmental concerns are minimal and the potentials for bloom suppression are significant.”

The federal funding for this project is a competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Ocean Program.  Researchers will focus their work on the resuspention of the top inch of bottom sediment in small areas that are known to initiate red tides.  It is thought that by reducing the numbers of newly hatched cells that can get into the water column, algae blooms can be reduced and maybe ultimately eradicated. 

Nauset inlet experiences annual blooms of Alexandrium fundyense, an algae that produces neurotoxins which can cause extreme illness or death in humans when ingested.  These blooms force the closure of shellfishing in the system, usually for about two months in the spring and early summer.  Much larger red tide events occur along the New England coastline, forcing massive closures to the harvest of clams, mussels, oysters and other shellfish.  In September of 2009, Rep. Delahunt testified before the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on energy and Environment calling for aggressive action to reduce harmful algae bloom events.