Bitter Crab Workshop to Bring in International Experts

United States and Canadian crustacean experts have set an international workshop focusing on bitter crab-related diseases worldwide. The Bitter Crab Workshop will run from September 20 through 22 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Participants will discuss bitter crab-related diseases and their impacts on crustaceans world-wide.

“The workshop is intended to bring together scientists, managers and fishers to discuss current knowledge of Hematodinium-related diseases. We all have a vested interest in maintaining healthy crustacean populations and the Bitter Crab Workshop will be the first opportunity for all of us to get on the same page. Honestly, there is a lot we know, but there is so much more that we need to know about this important disease complex,” stated Dr. Frank Morado, co-chairman of the workshop. Dr. Morado works in NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

“We are limiting total participation to 100 people including 25 scientists,” said Dr. Morado. “For this reason we are encouraging interested parties to register as soon as possible. To date we have received very positive support for the workshop from many government departments and industry groups from Canada and the U.S.”

In Alaska, bitter crab disease is known to occur in snow crab, Chionoecetes opilio, in the Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, and Norton Sound, and in Tanner crab, C. bairdi, in Southeast Alaska, the Gulf of Alaska, and the Bering Sea. To date, 25 species of crustaceans world-wide are known to be infected.

Bitter crab disease is caused by a single-celled parasitic dinoflagellate of the genus Hemotodinium. In contrast, non-parasitic dinoflagellates are important members of plankton communities and contribute to primary productivity of the world’s oceans.

The Bitter Crab Workshop is being organized by the Lobster Science Center at Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Canadian Center for Fisheries Innovation at the Marine Institute of Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador. For more information on the Workshop see web site http://www.lobsterscience.ca/bcdworkshop/.

For more information contact:

Dr. Frank Morado
Fisheries Pathobiologist
US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Seattle, Washington
Phone: 206 526 6572
Fax: 206 526 6723
Email: frank.morado@noaa.gov

Or

Dr. Richard Cawthorn
Professor of Parasitology, Department of Pathology and Microbiology and
Research Scientist, Lobster Science Center
Atlantic Veterinary College
Phone: 902 566 0584
Fax: 902 566 0851
Email: cawthorn@upei.ca

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries Service) is dedicated to protecting and preserving our nation’s living marine resources through scientific research, management, enforcement, and the conservation of marine mammals and other protected marine species and their habitat. To learn more about NOAA Fisheries Service in Alaska, please visit our websites at www.fakr.noaa.gov or at www.afsc.noaa.gov.