HABs Watch: Addressing a National Problem Through a Localized Approach
Team Palawan during fieldwork in Puerto Princesa Bay
What has the HABs Watch Project accomplished in one and a half years?
Team Palawan during fieldwork in Puerto Princesa Bay
What has the HABs Watch Project accomplished in one and a half years?
Harmful algal blooms or HABs, more commonly known in the Philippines as “Red Tide” has been a long standing concern throughout the country. The first officially recorded occurrence of HABs was the Maqueda Bay Pyrodinium bloom in 1983. This resulted in a lot of hospitalization and deaths due to paralytic shellfish poisoning from ingesting infected green mussels. Forty years later, HABs have continued to occur in a lot of localities in the Philippines with newer areas being affected over time. Aside from the health risks they may cause, they also severely impact the livelihood of people dependent on the procurement and sale of vulnerable shellfish and fish species.
Today’s current mitigation measures are still primarily reactive. Although some HABs-prone localities have regular monitoring, in other areas where HABs are not as prevalent, testing only happens once there have already been possible cases of poisoning. Moreover, the national regulation and policy in place for HABs testing and analysis relies heavily on the BFAR Central Laboratory to conduct the tests, even for samples from other regions. This leads to delays in HABs advisories and increases the chance for health risks and steeper economic loss.
In order to address this concern, the CHED-LAKAS funded project HABs Watch was developed. HABs Watch is the largest consortium of state universities and colleges (SUCs) in the Philippines working on one project. Project leader Dr. Deo Florence Onda from the UP Marine Science Institute leads collaborators from different higher learning institutions across the country including Mariano Marcos State University, University of the Philippines Baguio, Central Luzon State University, Palawan State University, Western Philippines University, University of the Philippines Tacloban College, Mindanao State University at Naawan and Zamboanga State College of Marine Sciences and Technology, in partnership with collaborators from the University of Santa Cruz in California.
Part of the project’s objectives is to conduct real-time monitoring and early warning for HABs, but the project also aims to decentralize knowledge, skills and technology. The team members from different SUCs regularly conduct sampling and monitoring efforts based on project-optimized methods in their respective areas. Project members are consistently quantifying and identifying potential HABs species present in their localities. This long-term baselining effort provides valuable information on the species in their area and how the communities change over time, as well as the possible factors affecting the communities, as reflected by the collected environmental data. Initiatives have already been made by several teams to collaborate with local government units and government agencies for HABs mitigation and monitoring in their area.
Project members also regularly participate in trainings to further capacitate them in HABs knowledge, methods and technology including the use of Imaging Flow Cytobots or IFCBs and the utilization of artificial intelligence or AI in HABs research. The project has also helped to set up or refurbish laboratories in their respective institutions that can help researchers to conduct HABs studies, which are essential, not just for their schools, but for their community and the region.
The HABs Watch Project has made significant contributions to HABs research in the Philippines, with the establishment of the largest phytoplankton culture database to date and the implementation of cutting-edge technology for HABs monitoring, but the one contribution the project has made is the initiative to collectively address the harmful algal bloom situation on a national level, through a localized and area-specific approach.