SCCWRP assumes management of pier monitoring station for statewide HABs network

SCCWRP has taken over management of a coastal pier monitoring station for California’s 18-year-old harmful algal blooms (HABs) network – a transition that underscores SCCWRP’s commitment to ensuring the long-term continuity of coastal HAB monitoring data sets statewide.

Routine sampling at the Newport Pier station, which transitioned from the University of Southern California to SCCWRP last summer following a key retirement, supports California’s Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring and Alert Program (HABMAP). The monitoring network, which was co-developed by SCCWRP in 2008, collects HABs data via weekly sampling at piers statewide. The goal is to document the environmental conditions that accompany ecologically disruptive bloom events in coastal waters.

SCCWRP already had been supporting HABMAP by leading sample analysis in Southern California for a HAB toxin known as domoic acid.

Since its inception, HABMAP has been generating foundational monitoring data sets that have helped researchers, resource managers and marine mammal rescue centers prepare for and manage toxin-producing bloom events; these seasonal events can lead to mass strandings of sickened marine mammals. HAPMAP data, for example, have indicated comparatively low bloom activity for Southern California for 2026 – consistent with the dearth of mammal strandings documented this year.