Presence of Alexandrium catenella and paralytic shellfish toxins in finfish, shellfish and rock crabs in Monterey Bay, California, USA

Abstract

The central California coast is a highly productive, biodiverse region that is frequently aVected by the toxin-producing dinoXagellate Alexandrium catenella. Despite the consistent presence of A. catenella along our coast, very little is known about the movement of its toxins through local marine food webs. In the present study, we investigated 13 species of commercial WnWsh and rock crabs harvested in Monterey Bay, California for the presence of paralytic shellWsh toxins (PSTs) and compared them to the presence of A. catenella and PSTs in sentinel shellWsh over a 3-year period.

Examination of the Seasonal Dynamics of the Toxic Dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella at Redondo Beach, California, by Quantitative PCR

“…fundyense clade. While A. catenella was the only morphotype identified from Redondo Beach samples and is, to date, the only Alexandrium species documented on the U.S. west coast (10,16,37), new insight into species distinctions based on sequence information may lead to reevaluation of geographical distributions. In any case, the detection of all toxic Alexandrium species within group I can be revealed by our qPCR approach, which is of ecological relevance for HAB monitoring and early warning of PSP events.…”

“…High concentrations of paralytic shellfish toxins in U.S. waters have been particularly frequent and acute off the northeastern U.S. coast, where most studies of Alexandrium bloom dynamics and toxin production have been conducted (5,15,17,49,52,77). However, PSTs have also been reported routinely along the entire west coast of the United States (16,37,38,(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)56) and in other coastal locations throughout the world (http://www.whoi.edu/redtide/page.do?pidϭ14899).…”

“…Relatively little information relating actual cell abundances of Alexandrium species to particulate toxin concentrations in the plankton of these waters is available. Only one study from Monterey Bay, in central California (37), related a range of cell abundances (40 to 3,670 cells liter Ϫ1 ) to particulate toxin concentrations (3.1 to 512 ng STX equivalents [STXeq] liter Ϫ1 ). These particulate toxin concentrations were measured when toxins in sentinel shellfish exceeded the regulatory limit of 80 g of STXeq per 100 g of shellfish tissue, as established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (37).…”

Paralytic shellfish toxins in the Atlantic horse mackerel (<i>Trachurus trachurus</i>) over a bloom of <i>Gymnodinium catenatum</i>: the prevalence of decarbamoylsaxitoxin in the marine food web

“…The high levels observed in the present study, up to 4800 µg STXeq kg -1 in the fish viscera, are not commonly reported unless associated with fish kills (Mortensen 1985, Jester et al 2009. Species-specific differences in sensitivity of fishes to PSTs have been previously investigated (White 1981) and mortality of caged salmon has even been attributed to levels as low as 40 µg STX eq.…”

Investigation of Algal Biotoxin Removal during SWRO Desalination through a Materials Flow Analysis

“…The intracellular toxin concentrations reported from most field and laboratory studies were highly variable in the scientific literature [23,28,29]. Intracellular toxin concentrations of DA as determined from laboratory cultures of Pseudo-nitzschia species, for example, were observed to vary over 9 orders of magnitude [33].…”