Sullivan introduces bill to address harmful algal blooms

Sen. Dan Sullivan and a few of his colleagues in Congress have introduced legislation intended to improve the response to harmful algal blooms, or HABs, an emerging threat in waters of the Bering Strait region.

According to Sullivan’s office, this bill comes in response to increasingly severe harmful algal blooms in Alaska.

For example, his office cited the 2022 bloom in the Bering Strait region, which was one of the biggest and most toxic ever documented nationwide.

Sullivan, a Republican, put forth the bill with Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, as well as Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, a Democrat from Oregon, and Rep. Dave Joyce, a Republican from Ohio. All represent regions where HABs have become a concern in marine and freshwater ecosystems.

Harmful algal blooms occur when toxin-producing algae populations explode, threatening the health fish, shellfish, marine mammals, birds and people who rely on marine and freshwater resources.

“As America’s leading seafood producer and home to more coastline than the contiguous Lower 48 states combined, Alaska is particularly vulnerable to harmful algal blooms,” Sen. Sullivan said in a statement. “Unchecked HABs can threaten our marine life and coastal ecosystems, the livelihoods of our commercial fisheries and coastal communities, and the health and well-being of Alaskans. It is critical that we develop and coordinate effective responses to harmful algal blooms and efficiently monitor the health of our oceans for the sake of coastal communities, especially subsistence communities, and ecosystems across the country.”

The legislation would reauthorize and amend the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998.

Some of the amendments include adding language about involving stakeholders — including island communities, low-population rural communities, Indigenous communities,subsistence communities, fisheries and recreation industries — in research on the causes and impacts of HABs.

The bill also says that a task force should submit to Congress an “action strategy for harmful algal blooms in the United States” at least every five years.