An unusual year for the occurrence of harmful algae (China and Hong Kong), Lu Songhui & I. J. Hodgkiss …....................1 A new PSP-like toxin in Alexandrium andersonii (Dinophyceae) (Mediterranean), P. Ciminiello, E. Fattorusso, M. Forino, & M. Montresor …........................................................................................................................….1 A Gymnodinium mikimotoi occurrence spring 1998 (Hong Kong), M.D. Dickman & Senming Tang ….................................2 Massive fish killing by Gyrodinium sp. (Hong Kong), Z.B. Yang & I.J. Hodgkiss................................….4 A toxic bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia australis in Monterey Bay, California, Chris Scholin …................................… .. 6 Domoic acid poisoning afflicts sea lions and birds (USA), Chris Scholin …..................................7 Brown tides on the west coast (South Africa), G.C. Pitcher, S. Bernard, R.N. Pienaar… . .................................….8 Saving a wetland and a marine mussel resource impacted by cyanobacterial hepatotoxins (South Africa), William R Harding…..11 IOC and SCOR launches new science programme on HAB (GEOHAB), John Cullen & Henrik Enevoldsen…........................….13 The Fourth International Conference on Toxic Cyanobacteria, Geoffrey A. Codd…................................….13 International Society for the Study of Harmful Algae ISSHA, F. J. R. Taylor……................................15 Mortality among marine life in Wellington Harbour (New Zealand), R. G. Wear…………................................….16 REVIEW: The Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms, Roger Bradburry ……................................…… . 16 Bloom of Gonyaulax polygramma in the Galician Rias (Spain), Yolanda Pazos….................................19 Future events ................................................................................................20