Spatial and temporal trends of Paralytic Shellfish Toxins in Puget Sound, WA

For decades the Washington State Department of Health has routinely measured a suite of toxins in shellfish, including those associated with Paralytic Shellfish Toxins (PST). The role of this monitoring program is to protect public safety and therefore analysis of this extensive dataset has been limited. We extracted a twenty-year subset of these data to analyze for trends in timing of bloom initiation and movement of PST after its first annual appearance. Unlike previous research that discovered increases in both duration and magnitude, we did not find a consistent corresponding change in date of bloom initiation.