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Crews to sample Pepper Creek waters today

The News Journal
July 11, 2000

By Molly Murray
Sussex Bureau reporter

DAGSBORO - An emergency response crew will be back on Pepper Creek this morning sampling the water for the microbe Pfiesteria piscicida.

They will wear protective suits to avoid contact with the water and any airborne toxins that Pfiesteria could give off.

Edythe Humphries, the state Pfiesteria program manager, estimated that 50,000 to 80,000 menhaden died in Pepper Creek on Monday.

Humphries said this year state officials have focused on chlorophyll levels in the water and assessments of fish health as signals of a potential problem.

Now that dead fish with sores have been found in Pepper Creek, state workers will do a full spectrum of tests on the water in the creek, she said.

"Although there is nothing yet to confirm the presence of toxic Pfiesteria, we are concerned because this is the first time Delaware has found lesions associated with a fish kill and we want to take every precaution to ensure the public's health," said Roy Miller, the state fisheries program manager.

Pfiesteria, tiny single-celled organisms, can be harmless algae-eaters. But research indicates that in nitrogen and phosphorus rich waters, the number of cells rises dramatically. Some researchers have linked the organism to human neurological problems and skin sores. If large schools of oily fish - such as menhaden - enter the water, something triggers Pfiesteria to release a toxin.

Moderate levels of the toxin can cause sores on the fish but will not kill them. At higher levels, the fish die - sometimes in large numbers.

Humphries said state officials would sample Pepper Creek waters for high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and other potential indicators that can be compared with the other existing data.

Delaware officials have been on the lookout for Pfiesteria since 1997, when it was linked to fish kills on Maryland's Pocomoke River. The Pocomoke has its headwaters in Delaware.

Two Delaware fish kills - one in 1987 and another in 1988 - were also linked to Pfiesteria.

Starting in 1998, Delaware officials took water samples twice a month from Rehoboth and Indian River bays and tributaries during the summer.

Small numbers of Pfiesteria cells were found in Rehoboth Bay, Love Creek and Herring Creek in 1998, said David Saveikis, who ran the state Pfiesteria program at the time.

Higher concentrations were found in Pepper Creek and Whites Creek both tribuataries of the Indian River.

At the time, leading Pfiesteria researcher JoAnn Burkholder, a botanist at North Carolina State University, tested the Delaware samples and could not get the cells to cause skin sores or death in fish in the laboratory.

No Pfiesteria-related fish kills occurred in the last two years.