Toxic Algal Cell Counts in Shellfish Beds from 1996 to Present

1996 to present counts of potentially toxic algal cells in cells per litre, collected from shellfish beds around the coasts of England and Wales for the Food Standards Agency. The data is published by the Government Digital Service, with summary data from 2012 available on the FSA website.

Use Cases

• Monitor long-term trends in harmful algal blooms based on cell count data mentioned in the description
• Assess shellfish safety risks for public health enforcement based on toxic algal monitoring
• Model spatial and temporal distribution of toxic algae around the coastlines of England and Wales

Strengths

• Long-term monitoring data spanning from 1996 to the present
• Data is collected for a specific regulatory purpose by the Food Standards Agency

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA)

Collection Method

Samples collected from shellfish beds around the coast of England and Wales.

Time Range

1996 to present

Freshness

Data collection is ongoing to the present, but the last update date for the published dataset is unknown.

Geography

Coastal waters of England and Wales