ABSTRACT
This chapter is a result of my work as part of a team at the Cawthron Institute in New Zealand. During the 1980s Cawthron scientists studied the ecology of marine microalgae and worked alongside the shellfi sh aquaculture industry to learn how to harvest and grow the indigenous mussel, Perna canaliculus (Greenshell Mussel™). In 1993 a large bloom of an unknown toxic microalgal species closed the entire coastline of New Zealand (Jasperse 1993). As a result of this event, New Zealand established a nationwide, centrally co-ordinated monitoring programme for harmful algal toxins based upon two mouse bioassay methods, the paralytic shellfi sh poisoning (PSP) method (APHA 1970) and a so-called “DSP/NSP screen” (Hannah et al. 1995, McNabb et al. 2012a). These toxin-monitoring methods were eventually augmented by parallel phytoplankton monitoring.
