Economic losses associated with reduced commercial fish harvests and reduced tourism due to curtailed recreational fishing opportunities:
When HAB toxin levels in seafood exceed regulatory limits for human consumption, fisheries are shut down to prevent human illness. Commercial fisheries closures result in revenue and job losses across the fishing sector to directly affect fishers, processors, and harbor districts. For example, the largest and most toxic Pseudo-nitzschia bloom on the West Coast occurred in 2015, coincident with the 2013-2016 marine heatwave, and caused the longest-lasting and most widespread HAB-related fisheries closures on record (McCabe et al., 2016). Closures and delays in the opening of West Coast crab fisheries resulted in the appropriation of >$25M in federal disaster relief funds (Holland and Leonard, 2020). Closures of recreational fisheries can reduce associated tourism to affect the hospitality industry. For example, a season-long closure of the recreational razor clam (Siliqua patula) fishery in Washington State, such as occurred in 1998–1999 and 2002–2003, is estimated to result in $24.4 million in annual lost expenditures (2008 dollars; Dyson and Huppert, 2010).