GOHA & CMAST Host Think and Do Tank Working Group Meeting on Cyanotoxins in Seafood

Cyanobacteria are a common source of harmful algal blooms in freshwater systems and the toxins they produce can pose significant risks to aquatic organisms, wildlife, and human health. These toxins are environmentally persistent and can accumulate in fish and shellfish across estuary ecosystems. It is therefore crucial to understand cyanotoxin distribution across a continuum of freshwater to estuarine and marine environments, particularly in fished species that are commonly consumed by humans.

To help address this pressing One Health issue, the Global One Health Academy collaborated with CMAST to host a three-day Think and Do Tank Working Group Meeting. “Think and Do Tanks” are a new initiative led by the Office of University Interdisciplinary Programs (OUIP) to foster high-impact, interdisciplinary problem-solving. By leveraging the proven “synthesis center” model, Think and Do Tanks facilitate the use of existing data and discipline-spanning expertise to address big questions while centering public impact. This GOHA-CMAST collaborative meeting represents the first Working Group within the Think and Do Tank model.

With participants from NC State University, Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Louisiana, University of California Santa Barbara, and the NC Department of Environmental Quality, the goal of this working group is to establish regional reference points for cyanotoxin contamination in seafood. The project will synthesize data on cyanobacteria toxins in estuaries, with a particular focus on toxin accumulation in estuarine fish and shellfish, while exploring how regional factors, such as estuary size and surrounding land use, influence toxin accumulation. The ultimate goals are to establish best practices for aquaculture and fisheries and enable managers to predict and mitigate the impact of cyanobacterial blooms on aquatic food sources.

The Working Group will take a One Health approach to the issue of cyanotoxin contamination in seafood by integrating data on the effects of these toxins on human, animal, and environmental health, and employing systems thinking to understand how toxins flow within estuarine ecosystems. The Working Group will produce the first set of baseline reference values for toxin concentrations in seafood, enabling more informed seafood safety decision-making for natural resource management and public health.