From 2014 SAMS has operated an online risk assessment and early warning system for harmful algal blooms in Scottish waters. This is composed of weekly HAB risk assessments in the form of bulletins for the Shetland Shellfish industry and an open-access web portal that provides a site-specific HAB/biotoxin risk index and mathematical model-based forecasts of future HAB events. This App builds on that work to provide updates and notifications directly to your phone.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are overgrowths of certain species of phytoplankton in water. Some produce dangerous toxins in fresh or marine water but even nontoxic blooms hurt the environment and local economies through their impact on aquaculture and other uses of the coastal zone.

HABS can produce extremely dangerous toxins that can sicken or kill people and animals. High biomass blooms create low oxygen zones in the water, other taxa can raise treatment costs for drinking water. HABs can seriously hurt the aquaculture industry that depends on a pristine environment water.

This app displays the most recently water sample data collected across Scotland and Sabah region of Malaysia. You can view this data by by individual sample site using the map function. You can also use the app to report algal blooms directly SAMS.