Currently, routine work and standard protocol involve periodic (either weekly, monthly, or quarterly depending on the area, see BFAR AO No. 235) water sampling for algal cell counting and shellfish harvesting for toxin mouse bioassays are being conducted. Generally, this approach monitors shellfish toxins during the occurrence of red tide species or when PSP cases have already occurred. So far, this reactive approach will only prevent further PSP cases from occurring by imposing bans on shellfish harvesting. However, even if PSP cases have been prevented due to the bans, economic and livelihood losses could still be incurred since the shellfish are already unfit for human consumption, and thus cannot be harvested.  Hence, there is a pressing need for an early warning system and a proactive approach (before PSP cases happened) in monitoring red tides to anticipate the potential bloom of HABs species and mitigate the damages before it happens. 

Early warning systems would save lives and livelihood by 1) informing fisherfolks and agencies on the presence of the HABs causative organisms way before bloom conditions, allowing them to harvest products before toxicity levels become lethal and prohibited or before fish kills could happen, and 2) alert the monitoring agencies to conduct more spatial sampling, thereby safeguarding public health and security.  To do this, however, monitoring of the presence of causative species should be done round-the-clock with almost real-time data generation. Thus, this new framework and approach would like to address several limitations in the current monitoring protocols: 
1. Regular sampling and highly resolved phytoplankton community profiling;
2. Automated classification for the targeted species and real-time monitoring of cell abundance;
3. Informational structure for HABs data availability and access by the public and government agencies. 
 
Here, we propose two complementary approaches involving two latest technologies that can detect HABs species before the onset, during and after the bloom: 1) the use of submersible automated Imaging Flow Cytobot (IFCB) and 2) the use of molecular markers to determine toxin-producing species. This will be validated by toxin assays to correlate cell occurrence with toxicity levels. This ability to do real-time monitoring could be bridged to the public using web- or mobile-based applications where they can regularly check occurrences of HABs, thus improving public dissemination and usage of the generated data. In the end, we aim to create and establish functional and operational automated systems to effectively monitor HABs serving as an early warning system, and efficiently communicate these results to the public for awareness and advisory.            In this project, we aim to first establish model monitoring stations for shellfish poisoning-prone sites (Puerto Princesa Bay and Zamboanga) and fish kill-prone sites (Bolinao, Pangasinan), and a mobile team that can respond anywhere in the country wherever HABs are present or reported. The first two sites were selected based on the economic activity present in the areas. For the third model, a ‘mobile’ group will be established that can be deployed anywhere in the country to help monitor and assess the extent of HABs occurrence. This will help local authorities and concerned national agencies to make decisions based on scientific data. These IFCB-generated data will be validated and backed up by molecular data based on DNA- or toxin-based assays. These will all be done in collaboration with local government units, concerned national agencies, and the academe to transfer knowledge, expertise, and know-how, allowing the local community to be empowered through science-based decision-making.

●  A coastal model site for HABs and phytoplankton monitoring with integrated new and emerging technologies with a focus on three models targeting Shellfish Poisoning HABs (Model Site 1: Puerto Princesa Bay and Zamboanga), Fish Killing HABs (Model Site 2: Bolinao) and A Mobile Monitoring Team (Model 3) that will be ready to respond to wherever HABs are reported to be occurring.
●  A culture collection of toxin-producing microalgae that can be used as a basis to design specific primers and probes, and for the verification of the toxins
●  Working and functional probes and primers for molecular methods to detect and monitor HABs species, and discriminate toxic versus non-toxic taxa
●  An enriched and expanded database of microalgal images usable for classifying images of phytoplankton from the Philippine waters and even in neighboring countries 
●  Operational and field-based Imaging Flow CytoBot (IFCB) system 
●  Established web- and/or mobile-based application that integrates and visualizes the data generated from the IFCB in real-time, which is also accessible to and usable by the public 
●  An early warning system, which integrates field-based information and lab-based results to allow environmental managers, enforcers, concerned agencies, stakeholders, researchers, and the general public to be informed on the detection and presence of HABs species. 
●  Field guides and reference materials for phytoplankton identification in the Philippines 
●  Scientific publications, policy briefs, and recommendations to LGUs and NGAs
●  Training hubs for molecular and image-based detection and identification of phytoplankton in Bolinao, Puerto Princesa City, and Zamboanga
●  Establishment of the Philippine Marine Observation Network, which will allow integration and synthesis of data from the different geographic locations in the Philippines. These comprehensive and large-scale datasets can be used by other researchers for their own research related to biodiversity, climate change, and even marine pollution.