Knowledge Warding Against Toxin Levels, Facility Core

Abstract Sitka Tribe of Alaska Environmental Research Laboratory Facility Service Core The Facility Service Core of the Knowledge Warding Against Toxin Levels Center is run by the Sitka Tribe of Alaska Environmental Research Lab (STA-ERL). Chris Whitehead will be the Facility Service Core Director, as he established the STA-ERL in 2015 to support the Southeast Alaska Tribal Ocean Research (SEATOR) consortium. SEATOR was formed in 2013 to unify 17 Alaska Tribes in Southeast Alaska and Kodiak in detecting paralytic shellfish toxin (PST) events that pose a human health risk to subsistence and commercial shellfish harvesters. Each Tribal partner collects weekly shellfish samples at key community harvest sites and samples are sent to STA-ERL for toxin analysis. The STA-ERL FSC is the only facility in Alaska that provides consistent, timely toxin analysis for subsistence harvesters using the receptor binding assay (RBA) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). At the core of each project are data elements derived from samples sent in by SEATOR partners and analyzed by STA-ERL FSC. Project 1 will be estimating RBA and HPLC-measured specific congeners as a function of environmental conditions. Project 2 compares toxicity as measured by RBA against observed levels of HPLC-measured congeners. Project 3 assesses shellfish consumption patterns and will consider food-specific toxin distributions. Managing such data requires collaborative expertise in analytical methods. All STA-ERL lab analysts have been trained by chemists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and receive annual technical support from NOAA partners. The STA-ERL FSC will support the Center by providing accurate and timely data for all Research Projects in the Center as well as the Community Engagement Core. The STA-ERL FSC will also be available to process samples for other regional and state-based projects.