OPMS - A web-based ocean pollution monitoring system

Marine pollution poses significant risks to both marine ecosystems and human health, requiring effective monitoring and control measures. This study presents the Ocean Pollution Monitoring System (OPMS), a web application designed to visualize the seasonal and annual fluctuations of marine pollutants along coastal regions in Canada. The pollutants include fecal coliform and biotoxins such as paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), and amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP). The OPMS utilizes 20 years of data from nearly 15,000 shellfish harvesting sites across six provinces of Canada, allowing users to explore trends and the impact of these pollutants in user-selected geographical regions. The seasonal fluctuation patterns of fecal coliform and biotoxin levels were extracted by Functional Principal Component Analysis (FPCA) previously. OPMS visualizes these results in finer granularity to provide environmental managers and policymakers with a decision-support tool in shellfish safety and water quality management. The tool is accessible at http://opms.uvic.ca.