Phytoplankton early warning approaches for salmon farmers in southwestern New Brunswick: project summary

This project investigated the usefulness of several potential early warning approaches for predicting harmful phytoplankton blooms at salmon farms in southwestern New Brunswick. The components of this project included: training farm personnel on the sampling, identification, and counting of harmful phytoplankton species; implementation of daily phytoplankton monitoring by workers at selected salmon farms; retrospective analyses of existing phytoplankton monitoring data; laboratory experiments to determine threshold concentrations of selected harmful phytoplankton species that can cause problems for farmed salmon; use of a tidal circulation model to predict movements of phytoplankton blooms in the vicinity of salmon farms; evaluation of the effectiveness of a light sensor array for bloom detection; and evaluation of the usefulness of satellite imagery for bloom detection. The field and laboratory programs were completed in 2004 and 2005. Data analysis and report preparation are nearly completed and the project will end in March 2007. This presentation provides a summary of the project's activities and results.