Copyright 1998 Stuart News Company
The Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News (Stuart,FL)
May 10, 1998, Sunday
SECTION: A Section; Pg. A2
LENGTH: 705 words
HEADLINE: FOCUS OF FISH KILL RESEARCH QUESTIONED
BYLINE: Debi Pelletier of the News staff
BODY:
Troubled Waters
After all of this, could it be Critter B?
As Florida researchers prepare to test the St. Lucie Estuary
and other state waters for signs of a toxic microorganism they
tentatively have linked to fish kills, a leading scientist is
sounding a cautionary note.
Cryptoperidiniopsis, the primary suspect in the sick fish mystery,
might not be the culprit, despite the state Department of Environmental
Protection's focus.
"I keep hearing that the Florida DEP is focusing on Crypto
as the likely cause of the fish disease events," said JoAnn
Burkholder, a botanist at North Carolina State University's Biohazard
3 laboratory in Raleigh. "I'm really troubled by all this
because there's no evidence Crypto is toxic."
Burkholder discovered the toxic form of Pfiesteria piscicida
- microalgae closely related to Crypto and blamed for fish kills
in the Chesapeake Bay last summer. After waiting for more than
two months, she only recently received water samples containing
Crypto.
"I think you've probably got several things that could
be very much like Pfiesteria," Burkholder said. "It's
just that I don't know if Cryptoperidiniopsis is the one to focus
on. It could be, but we have no idea. We have to make sure it's
toxic first."
Things appear to be winding down in the fish death crisis.
Activity at a DEP office charged with taking calls and fish samples
in Jensen Beach has slowed almost to a standstill, and the Army
Corps of Engineers has decreased freshwater releases from overfull
Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie River. The releases from the
lake and resulting changes in estuary salinity were widely suspected
of contributing to the fish kills.
However, scientists plan to continue testing area waters. They
hope to compile as much information as they can before a May 22
summit with local, state and federal officials in Stuart.
After seeing the havoc wreaked by Pfiesteria in Chesapeake
Bay, state officials created the Florida Harmful Algal Bloom Task
Force. The DEP's Karen Steidinger heads the technical advisory
committee, which is surveying state waters for potentially toxic
microalgae. The only one the researchers have found, other than
the more common red tide, is Cryptoperidniopsis.
Because of its similarity to Pfiesteria and its presence where
there are sick fish, Crypto has become the chief suspect. However,
Burkholder is concerned that by focusing on Crypto, other organisms
might be missed.
For example, a microalga she calls Critter B.
It's toxic, it kills fish and it's not Crypto or Pfiesteria,
she said.
Burkholder said the organism was discovered in 1993 when her
lab received water samples five years ago from Pensacola and the
St. Johns and St. Lucie rivers.
"We found Pfiesteria-like species that came up and killed
fish," she said.
The microalgae was identified as Pfiesteria, but Burkholder
said those criteria were changed.
Steidinger has said no Pfiesteria has been found in Florida
so far, according to the current criteria. Burkholder wants to
work more closely with her in obtaining samples "to try and
determine the toxicity before anybody focuses on any one in particular."
She also questions the value of a statewide survey of microorganisms,
unless it's done where there are sick fish.
"In Maryland and in North Carolina, Virginia and Delaware,
I've advised people not to do any kind of routine monitoring to
try to track something like Pfiesteria, because if you go out
and you find areas where Pfiesteria is, it doesn't tell you anything,"
Burkholder said. "We have areas in North Carolina where there
are 5,000 Pfiesteria cells per milliliter and the fish are fine."
She said the key is whether there is toxic activity, so samples
must be taken where there are sick or dying fish.
David Heil is the facilitator for the Harmful Algal Bloom Task
Force in Tallahassee. He said two papers are being prepared -
one to identify the most problematic species of microalgae and
another to set research priorities for agencies concerned about
fisheries, the economy and public health.
But the task force wants to go one step further, he said, "to
see if we can do more than respond, but predict, mitigate and
control outbreaks."
LOAD-DATE: May 12, 1998