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Necessary Tools
A system is needed to record illness data due to pathogens, biotoxins, and chemical pollutants.
Integral to this system is expanded environmental monitoring and infrastructure.
Such a system would require collection of human and animal health data and relevant
environmental data (via remote, moored, and mobile platforms and sensors as part of an
integrated ocean-observing system), coupled with new data integration and interpretation
capabilities, and rapid data-communication plans. Once in place, the system could serve
to monitor and predict ocean conditions that place people and other animals at risk or
that may be favorable to human health.
Sensors capable of detecting biological and chemical parameters, such as microbial
species and densities, and toxin and contaminant identifications and concentrations must
be enhanced or developed. Remote sensing of ecological changes and real-time, high-frequency
(temporal and spatial), in situ monitoring combined with modeling efforts (statistical-empirical
and mechanistic) are necessary to inform understanding of ecosystems
and to track and predict outbreaks and other impacts. Designing advanced sensors for
hostile and extreme environments will enable more extensive ocean exploration. Developing,
enhancing, and applying new methods and tools at shore-based marine laboratories
and other facilities with specialized instrumentation (e.g., for large-scale gene sequencing)
and computational resources in areas such as genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics
will expand surveying and screening capabilities. Improved coordination of federal and
state data systems is needed for toxic algal-bloom monitoring, pathogen-source tracking,
marine-disease surveillance, and medical-illness reporting, and in the design and development
of a national database of monitoring and screening methodologies.
Many of the research efforts require interaction between oceanography and other
disciplines, such as biomedicine and public health, to provide a broader understanding
of the issues and to communicate the results of this research to support effective
decision-making.
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