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Short-term forecasts for marine biotoxins are now being tested

22 August 2016
Dr Jamie Shutler, from the University of Exeter, explains the progress that has been made with forecasting biotoxins.
ShellEye scientists are now beginning to understand how the environmental conditions in and around their pilot site can influence the marine biotoxin conditions within the mussel farm itself.

Marine biotoxin are naturally occurring and can be produced by certain types of marine algae. This new knowledge is now being used within ShellEye to provide short-term (1-2 day) forecasts of the marine biotoxin levels for one shellfish farm in Cornwall, UK. 

Understanding the water conditions within a farm is important, as good conditions enable the mussels to be harvested. The ShellEye team are now assessing the accuracy of these new short-term biotoxin forecasts.