Plankton Case

Overview
Plankton is a microscopic drifting organism present in most of the water bodies around the world. There are three categories of plankton, but only Phytoplankton and Zooplankton are of our interest. Phytoplankton is the primary producer and forms the base of food chain in most water bodies. Among these phytoplankton groups, there are some species that harm aquatic organisms mechanically or by toxin production either at low concentrations or by forming high concentration blooms known as Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). When doing aquaculture in natural water bodies like lakes, rivers and oceans, these harmful plankton could seriously damage the stock. So, monitoring for harmful plankton species is required.
Harmful plankton monitoring is
The database involves collecting data on environmental, plankton monitoring and mitigation, fish and jellyfish information. Remote sampling was also done in few areas depending on the plankton situation in the area. Quatsino and Klemtu areas had dedicated remote sampling crew. Broughton did occasional remote sampling with site technicians in situation with higher harmful plankton counts. Remote sampling was a proactive measure and a key aspect in plankton monitoring in these areas. This works as an early warning system as it gives enough time to prepare before harmful plankton arrives on site. Information gathered based on the sampling (Onsite and remote) was used to decide on whether to feed or not and using the plankton mitigation system. Plankton mitigation system in use was designed over years with many trails and errors and it is doing the work what it is designed for beautifully. This system involves air diffusion and perimeter tarps. There are different levels in this mitigation system design which were installed on farm site. The level of the mitigation system installed on a farm site was based on the risk level or feasibility of using the