Recent Meetings | Future Meetings

Meetings of the ORHAB partnership plays an important role in developing and maintaining a collegial spirit among the members. In addition, these meeting provide an opportunity for the partners to quickly inform others of recent findings and to discuss the implications of those findings.

ORHAB meeting, March 16, 2007
Ocean Shores, Washington

This meeting brought together the various partners in the ORHAB partnership. Each group reported on key activities and initiatives for continued collaboration were discussed.

Meeting Notes can be viewed by clicking here -- MEETING NOTES, MARCH 16, 2007

ORHAB meeting, September 23, 2003
Taholah, Washington

Bucket of unprocessed clams

The primary goal of this meeting was to discuss the transition of ORHAB to a State-funded program in the summer of 2005. Recently, a new law was passed by Washington State legislature that implemented the addition of a $3 per license surcharge to shellfish licenses, of which the first $150,000 will go to pay for ORHAB monitoring. The partners discussed what the most essential elements of the monitoring program are and how to sustain the collaboration among all partners after Federal funding ends in 2005.

Workers shucking razor clams

Each partner gave a summary of progress over the past few months. Included were discussions of the first two ECOHAB Pacific Northwest cruises in June and September 2003. These cruises are successful because of their interaction with ORHAB. Dan Ayres received word at the beginning of the meeting from the Washington Department of Health that all razor clams, except for those at Mocrocks (a beach co-managed by the Quinault tribe and the WA Dept of Fish and Wildlife) were determined to be at safe levels. The first recreational razor clam dig was set for September 26-28, 2003. The Quinault tribe had a successful commercial dig the night before the ORHAB meeting. Marc Suddleson, visiting from Washington, D.C., was treated to a tour of the Quinault fish house, where razor clam cleaning and canning was underway!

ORHAB Meeting, February 7, 2002
Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife
Olympia, Washington

Marc Suddleson, manager of the Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful Algal Blooms (MERHAB) program attended a meeting of the Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom (ORHAB) project's principal investigators on Thursday, February 07. Marc provided an overview of the national harmful algal bloom (HAB) effort detailing NOAA supported activities in research, monitoring and event response. ORHAB researchers from several coastal Indian tribes, Washington state health and environmental agencies, University of Washington, and Battelle laboratories presented recent accomplishments in the development of new methods to identify, track and monitor impacts of HABs affecting the region. Partners have found that participation in ORHAB has created a number of benefits that were illustrated by managers from Washington State Department of Health and Department of Fish and Wildlife. With access to data and expertise available only through ORHAB partnership, the State has increased it's confidence in predicting shellfish safety in the region while requiring 40% fewer samples to make determinations. Requiring less sample analysis produces cost savings at state laboratories. Additionally, HAB monitoring advances through ORHAB have reduced instances of unnecessary beach closures, improving public confidence in State resource management agencies, providing better protection for public health, and benefiting the economies of struggling Olympic Coast beach communities.

Recent HAB meetings attended by ORHAB participants

Future Meetings

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