Copyright 1998 Stuart News Company
The Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News (Stuart,FL)
April 21, 1998, Tuesday
SECTION: A Section; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 1072 words
HEADLINE: EXPERT: SICK FISH NOT NEW
BYLINE: Debi Pelletier of the News staff
BODY:
Troubled Waters
An ecologist who has studied the fish for 18 months said the
problem>isn't a one-time epidemic.
STUART - As researchers from the state Department of Environmental
>Protection began three days of intensive net fishing in the
St. Lucie Estuary to >determine just how many fish are sick,
one scientist says she's already got a pretty good idea.
Joan Browder, an ecologist with the Southeast Fisheries Science
Center >of the National Marine Fisheries Service, said has
been studying diseased and >deformed fish in the estuary for
18 months.
Her conclusion: Something is seriously wrong.
Thousands of fish taken from as many as 30 sampling stations
during the period have shown a wide variety of problems, Browder
said. The most >predominant are lesions, but include several
deformities such as "twisted or shortened spines, or missing
spines on the fins, or scoliosis - twisted vertebrae," Browder
said Monday from her Miami office.
"Another fairly common one is scale disorientation, just
scales twisted around, and parasites," she said, adding that
an intriguing lesion also is occurring on spottail pinfish. Unlike
the raw sores or ulcerations most >commonly found, these look
like gold-colored spots.
Although her research project isn't finished, Browder was able
to provide figures from the sampling done from November 1996 through
mid-August of 1997.
"Of 399 sheepshead we caught, 133 had lesions," she
said. "We had some >very, very bad cases. Once when I
was in the boat, we brought up a sheepshead >that was just
dripping blood and pus from its body and its fins."
The sheepshead were among the worst. At the lower end of the
scale were shiners. Of more than 3,700 caught, 5.4 percent had
lesions. With mangrove snapper, 7.6 percent had lesions; black
margate, 6.1 percent; hardhead >catfish, 8.9 percent.
"We didn't catch very many stingrays but the ones we caught
had a very high incidence of these lesions," Browder said.
It was 46 percent - 17 out of 37 caught. "I have a picture
of one of them. Just the whole bottom of the fish is raw."
Browder pointed out that her findings were averaged over a
nine-month sampling period. She thinks the lesion problem ebbs
and flows. And she notes those most affected appear to be bottom-dwelling
fish.
"This suggests to me that there's something environmental
going wrong," Browder said.
After researching fish disease in Biscayne Bay for more than
a decade, Browder began to hear stories about fish in the St.
Lucie Estuary and >thought it would be a worthwhile project
to research. She hired two local fishermen, >Walter and Michael
Kandrashoff, to collect samples. What she saw surprised her.
"I think it makes a very telling story," Browder
said. "I'd like to do this study in a number of different
estuaries," but funding is difficult to obtain. "Maybe
the aquatic lab of the DEP will eventually be able to. The problem
is, when they go in very briefly and sample an estuary, they can
miss this."
That notwithstanding, Browder said she's glad the fishing blitz
is on at least through Wednesday. She said her work already shows
that the sick fish problem isn't something that suddenly appeared
from nowhere and is not "a one-time epidemic. It's a chronic
problem."
The first day of sampling by DEP researchers turned up just
seven fish with lesions or suspected lesions, and about 43 others
that were questionable, said Brent Winner, who heads the 10-crew,
two-boat effort.
Those that were questionable showed signs of other problems
such as fin >rot, he said, but he emphasized that the results
were "extremely preliminary" and a clearer picture should
emerge after the three-day fishing expedition is done.
Of the 55 species caught using seine nets, there were about
400 white >mullet, 75 striped mullet, and just under 300 snook,
he said. Those with suspected lesions included white mullet, flounder,
pinfish, toadfish and burrfish. None displayed the kinds of gaping
wounds that were seen when the first sick fish reports began in
early March. All the fish were sent to the DEP's Marine Research
Institute lab in St. Petersburg.
Sensitive to complaints that the sampling has begun too late,
DEP biologist Ann Forstchen replied that it's difficult to quickly
pull together such a coordinated effort. "That's an unfounded
criticism," she said, pointing out >that other research
projects have been put on hold as staff from at least six field
offices have been reassigned to fish the St. Lucie Estuary. "It
took an incredible amount of effort," she said.
There will be a post-mortem once the furor dies down, she said.
"That definitely will happen. We'll go over what we did and
what we could have done better," Forstchen said.
Browder is quick to point out she's an ecologist, not a bacteriologist,
toxicologist or pathologist, so she doesn't know what's causing
the ailments. But she said freshwater fluctuations are probably
only one factor "because >we do get it for several months,
not just the months when they were releasing water," she
said. She suspects sediment contaminated by toxins, or >over-enriched
with nutrients, might be culprits, by promoting the growth of
toxic microalgae such as Cryptoperidiniopsis.
Browder said she's been sending fish and water samples to the
DEP's Marine Research Institute, but all efforts have since been
focused on "lesion-type problems, because they sort of overwhelm
the others." She points out problems have been seen for years
in turtles and are beginning to show up in other animals, such
as dolphins.
"I would say these things are further evidence of troubled
waters," she warned. "Now everybody's seeing this and
I think that's good because now the problem will be recognized."
In the meantime, the DEP has moved its mobile operations center
into the parking lot of the Snook Nook bait and tackle shop in
Jensen Beach as part of the effort to stay current with the fish
disease event. The last time it was used for an emergency situation
was after the ValuJet air crash in the Everglades and Hurricane
Andrew in South Florida, said agency spokesman Willie Puz, who's
based in West Palm Beach.
The small white trailer will remain at the Snook Nook for as
long as it's needed, he said. It will be staffed every day should
anyone have fish they >want to bring in, or questions they
want answered.
Starting this morning, a phone will be hooked up. The number
is 225-9114.
LOAD-DATE: April 21, 1998