Report on PICES meeting, Ministry of Marine Resources, Rarotonga.
28th April 2011
Attended by: Gregg Young, Eilidh Hawkins & Michelle Gray
Following an informal meeting with members of the Harmful Algae Bloom PICES project the Esther Honey Foundation were invited to give a short presentation at the next day’s PICES group meeting on our experience of ciguatera toxicosis. PICES is the North Pacific Marine Science Organization and the work in the South Pacific is funded by the Japanese government.
The aim of this meeting was to share knowledge between various groups and communities affected by ciguatera poisoning and work towards a monitoring strategy for three specific Pacific nations (the Cook Islands, Kiribati and Samoa). The meeting was attended by representatives of the Cook Island Ministry of Marine Resources; two oceanographers from North American Universities (Charlie and William); a Samoan senior Marine Officer; a PhD student (Teina); a local medical doctor and ourselves.
Presentations were given on a number of aspects of ciguatera, including the effect of climate change; appropriate cost effective monitoring; incidence of human fish poisoning cases and more specifically the past monitoring practices in Rarotonga. The Samoan representative also gave an interesting talk which highlighted the differences between Rarotonga and Samoa. Most notably Samoa seemed to have more established monitoring practices and a much lower incidence of fish poisoning in their human population. Unfortunately Samoan animal data was not available. We gave a short presentation on our work with fish poisoning victims.
This meeting was a good opportunity to obtain other perspectives on the issue of ciguatera toxicosis as well as share our own experiences with regards to the companion animal population on Rarotonga. Future plans for the group include a training workshop in September to facilitate training of local (and Samoan and Karibati) scientists in affordable monitoring protocols.
28th April 2011
Attended by: Gregg Young, Eilidh Hawkins & Michelle Gray
Following an informal meeting with members of the Harmful Algae Bloom PICES project the Esther Honey Foundation were invited to give a short presentation at the next day’s PICES group meeting on our experience of ciguatera toxicosis. PICES is the North Pacific Marine Science Organization and the work in the South Pacific is funded by the Japanese government.
The aim of this meeting was to share knowledge between various groups and communities affected by ciguatera poisoning and work towards a monitoring strategy for three specific Pacific nations (the Cook Islands, Kiribati and Samoa). The meeting was attended by representatives of the Cook Island Ministry of Marine Resources; two oceanographers from North American Universities (Charlie and William); a Samoan senior Marine Officer; a PhD student (Teina); a local medical doctor and ourselves.
Presentations were given on a number of aspects of ciguatera, including the effect of climate change; appropriate cost effective monitoring; incidence of human fish poisoning cases and more specifically the past monitoring practices in Rarotonga. The Samoan representative also gave an interesting talk which highlighted the differences between Rarotonga and Samoa. Most notably Samoa seemed to have more established monitoring practices and a much lower incidence of fish poisoning in their human population. Unfortunately Samoan animal data was not available. We gave a short presentation on our work with fish poisoning victims.
This meeting was a good opportunity to obtain other perspectives on the issue of ciguatera toxicosis as well as share our own experiences with regards to the companion animal population on Rarotonga. Future plans for the group include a training workshop in September to facilitate training of local (and Samoan and Karibati) scientists in affordable monitoring protocols.
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