The Social, Cultural, and Economic Assessment of Harmful Algal Blooms (SEAHAB) program is a national, peer-reviewed, competitive research funding program that seeks to assess the social, cultural and economic impacts of harmful algal bloom (HAB) events. Social, cultural and economic research provides critical information that allows communities, resource management, public health agencies, affected sectors, and scientists to develop and implement coordinated, effective responses to HAB events at local, state and regional scales.

SEAHAB funds research that addresses:

• Social and/or cultural impacts of HAB events response at local, state and/or regional scales.
• Economic impacts of HAB events at local, state and/or regional scales.
• Impacts of HAB events on subsistence at local, state and/or regional scales.

Research funded through the SEAHAB program may guide future research on the social, cultural and economic impacts of HAB events at a local, state, and regional, and national level, and inform the selection of management strategies and methods most appropriate to a specific HAB event and ongoing issues. Resulting research will also provide the necessary building blocks that can lead to a better national assessment of the social, cultural and economic impacts from HAB events.

Prior to the establishment of the SEAHAB program, socioeconomic research to assess impacts of HAB events and the costs and benefits of mitigation strategies was previously funded through the Prevention, Control, and Mitigation of HABs (PCMHAB) program. SEAHAB is authorized as a national competitive research program within NOAA under the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act HABHRCA.

Funding announcements for SEAHAB, and other CRP national competitive HAB programs (ECOHAB, MERHAB and PCMHAB), will be published on Grants.gov.

For more information, contact Brittany King, SEAHAB Program Manager, at Brittany.King@noaa.gov.