NOAA is an American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce that focuses on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere. The IAEA and NOAA cooperate on coastal zone management and, in particular, in the international research on the impacts of harmful algal blooms and hypoxia.
Collaboration between the IAEA and NOAA is governed by a Practical Arrangement, signed on 29 November 2010. Under the collaboration framework, the two organizations work with those Agency’s Member States that receive technical assistance in dealing with harmful algal blooms and their serious global impacts on human health, economies and ecosystem services.
The focus of these activities is on developing Member States’ capacities to monitor harmful algal blooms and on toxin testing and relevant technology transfer. Special attention is paid to the Receptor Binding Assay methods for toxin in shellfish, which cause paralysis and ciguatera (food poisoning caused by eating fish contaminated by the ciguatera toxin).
24 February 2016
