Copyright 1998 Palm Beach Newspaper, Inc.
The Palm Beach Post
April 8, 1998, Wednesday, MARTIN-ST. LUCIE EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL, Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 614 words
HEADLINE: BIOLOGIST PROBES FOR KEYS TO SICK FISH
BYLINE: Sally D. Swartz, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: ST. PETERSBURG
BODY:
Biologist Ann Forstchen put on rubber gloves before she touched
the dead mullet.
''I'm not afraid of catching anything,'' the fish-health expert
said. ''I just don't want my hands to stink forever.''
With tools that looked like tweezers and nail scissors, she
removed dots of tissue from the mullet's skin, gills, kidney and
an open sore beside its tail.
Forstchen and four other scientists are trying to find out
why 25 species of sick fish have turned up from North Palm Beach
to New Smyrna Beach since March 2 - the majority in the St. Lucie
and Indian rivers near Stuart.
Dead fish from the Treasure Coast, iced in coolers, arrive
daily at the Department of Environmental Protection's Florida
Marine Research Institute here.
The institute at the downtown St. Petersburg campus of the
University of South Florida has state-of-the-art equipment including
a scanning electron microscope that magnifies microbes up to 100,000
times.
It is a microscopic algae called Cryptoperidiniopsis that may
be causing the fish on the Treasure Coast to develop lesions and
sores. Forstchen hopes to find out where it comes from, how it
behaves and what it does to fish.
But the investigation is just beginning, and Forstchen admits
scientists may never know all the answers.
''By the end of the month, we hope to have some sort of preliminary
diagnosis, or at least to eliminate some theories,'' Forstchen
said. ''We may also end up with a lot more questions.''
She said scientists have made progress, noting different species
display different symptoms.
Mullet, for example, seem to be the most affected, with symptoms
including open sores, bloody lesions and deep ulcers that reveal
organs inside.
Despite reports of tumors, none have been found, Forstchen
said. She speculated whitish lesioned areas look like tumors when
viewed under water.
Jacks have surface lesions rather than gaping holes, she said,
and other species have reddened areas that look like surface hemorrhaging
or red dots.
''We can't jump to conclusions and say they're all caused by
the same thing,'' Forstchen said.
Biologists are growing cultures from tissues of the sick fish
to see what bacteria is present. They're treating tissues with
special materials to create slides to study, a three-week process.
''We're looking for something different in the fish that we
wouldn't >find in the water,'' Forstchen said. ''So far, what's
in the fish is in the water.''
Scientists are looking at the sick fish as a problem of chronic
fish >disease, rather than an extensive fish kill.
And biologists have not yet found Pfiesteria, the toxic microbe
>implicated in fish kills in other states, in Florida. Pfiesteria
caused humans to >develop sores and experience temporary memory
loss and learning problems.
While Crypto, as its known, looks a lot like Pfiesteria under
a >microscope, scientists know of no human health problems
associated with it or the lesioned fish.
Crypto seems to like water with lower saltiness, which is certainly
the >case on the Treasure Coast. The influx of fresh water,
which water managers >released to lower overflowing Lake Okeechobee,
could have triggered a bloom of the >toxic microalgae, Forstchen
said. Or nutrients from runoff of fresh water could trigger it.
''We don't know,'' Forstchen said. ''Many scientists are convinced
>nutrients are a major factor in these events.''
Callers to the state's fish-kill hot line offer creative answers,
Forstchen said.
''We've had people blame the nuclear power plant, the full
moon, a World >War II submarine leaking mercury, the Drug Enforcement
Administration dumping cocaine,'' she said, ''and even aliens.''
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (2 C & B&W), 1. (C) PAUL J. MILETTE/Staff
Photographer, Ann Forstchen takes samples from a mullet, one of
25 species of sick fish found >from North Palm Beach to New
Smyrna Beach., 2. (C) 'We're looking for something different in
the fish that we wouldn't find in the water.' ANN FORSTCHEN Fish-health
expert with Florida's Marine Research Institute, 3. (B&W)
Photo by Florida Marine Research Institute, Cryptoperidiniopsis
as seen through a scanning electron microscope. The algae is believed
to have a role in making fish sick.
LOAD-DATE: April 9, 1998