Harmful algal blooms (HABs) affect the health of ecosystems and communities around the world. When these blooms occur, they can contaminate seafood, threaten coastal livelihoods, disrupt tourism, and strain public health systems. Understanding and managing HABs is therefore essential to safeguarding people and the ocean they rely on.
To support Member States in addressing these challenges, the Intergovernmental Panel on Harmful Algal Blooms (IPHAB) cosponsored by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, has specific Task Teams to address the most critical challenges in delivering solutions for mitigation and management of HABs.
On 24–25 February 2026, they met online to review progress toward their 2025–2026 targets.
Towards the next Global HAB status report
IPHAB has launched preparations for the next edition of the Global HAB status report (GHSR), a key resource for governments, scientists, and coastal communities. Two complementary products will be developed:
• A thematic interim report in 2027, providing the latest insights on global HAB trends.
• A fully updated global assessment in 2030, aligned with the closing year of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
The GHSR aims to make knowledge accessible to all, helping Member States strengthen readiness, reduce risks, and protect coastal populations.
Modernizing global database on harmful algal events
For more than 30 years, Member States have worked together under IPHAB to document harmful algal events. This information is hosted in HAEDAT, an online database managed through IOC’s International Oceanographic Data Exchange (IODE) programme.
A major upgrade of the platform is now nearing completion. The renewed HAEDAT will offer:
• simpler tools for countries to report events,
• improved data quality and curation,
• an interface aligned with modern web standards.
This modernization will make it easier for scientists, authorities, and the public to access trustworthy information on HAB events worldwide.
Advancing detection of ciguatera toxins
Ciguatera fish poisoning remains one of the most complex HAB-related health challenges. While scientific methods to detect toxins in fish are improving, many difficulties remain. Better ways to identify fish species involved in poisoning events are emerging, but there is still a lack of reference materials to confirm the presence of ciguatera toxins with confidence.
The IPHAB Task Team meeting highlighted the need for common guidance to help laboratories accurately isolate and culture the microalgae that produce these toxins. Such efforts are vital for protecting communities, especially those in tropical regions where ciguatera is most common.
Supporting countries with risk maps and early warnings
The meeting also reviewed progress on an FAO-led initiative to develop global risk maps for HABs, with a strong focus on supporting regions that currently lack monitoring systems. The work includes gathering environmental and biological indicators, compiling open datasets, and building an FAO-hosted online platform where countries can visualize potential risks. Technical work underway includes compiling species occurrence data (e.g., from the IOC’s Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), selecting relevant environmental correlates such as temperature, salinity, mixed layer depth, and upwelling, and testing machine learning approaches to model habitat suitability for key HAB taxa.
READ MORE: https://www.ioc.unesco.org/en/articles/iphab-task-team-online-meeting
