MyHABs

This app was jointly developed by the Universiti Malaya, Department of Fisheries Sabah and the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS). The aim is to provide residents of Sabah with a warning system for Harmful Algal Blooms.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are overgrowths of certain species of phytoplankton in water. Some produce dangerous toxins in fresh or marine water but even nontoxic blooms hurt the environment and local economies through their impact on aquaculture and other uses of the coastal zone.

HABS can produce extremely dangerous toxins that can sicken or kill people and animals. High biomass blooms create low oxygen zones in the water, other taxa can raise treatment costs for drinking water. HABs can seriously hurt the aquaculture industry that depends on a pristine environment water.

In Malaysia the HAB taxa of greatest concern are Margalefidinium polykrikoides that generates large blooms capable of causing fish kills and Pyrodinium bahamense a producer of saxitoxin that can be accumulated in shellfish tissue is harmful to human consumers of these shellfish.

This app displays the most recently water sample data collected across the Sabah region of Malaysia. You can view this data by District or by individual sample site by using the map function. You can also use the app to report algal blooms directly to the Department of Fisheries Sabah.