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MERHAB
The ultimate aim of MERHAB is to help build sustainable regional partnerships that provide managers with crucial information in time for critical decisions needed to mitigate HAB impacts. The MERHAB research program is addressing the growing national HAB threat by expanding the number of coastal regions benefiting from advancements in algal identification, detection, modeling, and prediction. Projects selected for support must successfully compete in a peer-review process that ensures high-level scientific merit and resource management relevance. MERHAB competitions in 2002 and 2004 produced regional monitoring projects that will enhance State monitoring and response capabilities for red tide in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, freshwater toxic algae in the lower Great Lakes and domoic acid along the central California coast. Eight additional projects are testing promising new technologies for routine monitoring use by coastal managers. [Summary adapted from http://www.cop.noaa.gov/stressors/extremeevents/hab/current/fact-merhab.html]