Application of remote sensing of ocean colour to forecast HAB events
Rodríguez-Benito and J. Arancibia (2002) Application of remote sensing of ocean colour to forecast harmful algal blooms events in Chile. HAB newsletter on toxic algae and algal blooms, Nº23. September 2002.
A very intense event of HAB was detected at the beginning of the austral
summer of 2002 in the south of Chile, due to the presence in high concentrations of the species Alexandrium catenella.
More than 30 people were intoxicated and one dead was registered in the X region of the country, in the last March. There were strong economic impact
in the area around the Archipelago of Chiloé, were the main population resource is the extraction of shellfish.
The region was declared as a catastrophic area by the president of the country in April. This was the first event registered in this area, and the Northern limit of distribution of the species, which has expanded to north. Until this year the species was registered to affected the Southern regions (XI and XII) of this country.
Remote sensing data has not been exploited for the moment for this
application, in Chile. The method has been generally recognised as useful to identify high-risk blooms, and target in situ sampling .
During the beginning of this year new cooperations between Institutions and companies were established to promote remote sensing in Chile, as a contribution to monitor HAB.
This technology, supported by additional local knowledge and ancillary data was presented was presented by Dr. C. Rodriguez, for this application during the IV Spatial Conference of Latin America (Cartagena, Colombia, May 2002) to support this field of research. The proposal was accepted in the workgroup 3, in the session of prevention and mitigation of natural disasters.
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