Copyright 1998 Stuart News Company
The Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News (Stuart,FL)
May 10, 1998, Sunday
SECTION: A Section; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 837 words
HEADLINE: SICK FISH TIDE NOW A TRICKLE
BYLINE: Andrew Conte of the News staff
BODY:
Troubled Waters
A Crisis Eases
Anglers and state scientists have seen almost no fish with
lesions since May 1.
JENSEN BEACH - For weeks, Kristy Halvorsen, a Florida Atlantic
University student, has spent her weekends inside a cramped trailer
office, with its maps and graphic photos of dead fish lining the
walls.
Halvorsen works part time for the state Department of Environmental
Protection and often uses the agency's temporary command post
in the Snook Nook's parking lot.
When thousands of sick fish were turning up in local waterways
with mysterious lesions in March and April, DEP employees such
as Halvorsen were busy collecting samples and answering questions.
But now, few people come to the trailer to turn in sick fish or
ask for information.
"It has really slowed down," Halvorsen said Friday.
"We mainly have some people coming by and asking questions
- if it's safe to eat the fish or to swim in the water."
On Thursday, one person brought in a fish with a bite taken
out of its tail, but no lesions. From May 1 through Friday, the
DEP received just three fish with actual lesions, according to
log reports.
As fewer people bring in the sick fish or report seeing them,
state scientists have started to speculate the immediate problem
might finally be over.
The agency has been telling anglers they have little to fear
by eating healthy looking fish from the Indian River Lagoon or
St. Lucie River. Despite some reports of health problems, the
agency does not have any evidence that the water poses a danger
to swimmers, either.
State biologists cannot explain why fewer fish seem to have
lesions, but they have said it might be linked to a reduction
in freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee. Scientists guessed
the nutrient-rich fresh water was creating an ideal environment
for Cryptoperidiniopsis, a toxic microalga that might have attacked
the fish.
The DEP will know exactly how much the sick fish problem has
diminished after another round of sampling between Monday and
Wednesday. State biologists will catch fish affected waters to
determine whether there are fewer fish with lesions than in samples
from two weeks earlier.
"It does appear things are getting much better,"
said Ann Forstchen, a DEP biologist. "On Monday, we'll have
a much better idea."
Even if the agency finds fewer fish with lesions, the long-term
problem of how to prevent similar kills will remain. State scientists
will work for months trying to identify organisms that attacked
the fish and determine reasons for the deaths.
Local anglers who have pressed the cause for cleaning the waterways
after the sick fish were first detected said they will not let
up their efforts, no matter what the DEP does.
Henry Caimotto, owner of the Snook Nook, has an idea why fewer
sick fish are surfacing.
"You want to know why they're not catching so many with
lesions? They're all dead," he said. "The problem is
not going to go away."
Anecdotal evidence might support Caimotto's theory.
Wade and Betty Aycock were the first people to report seeing
thousands of silver mullet with lesions near their Sewall's Point
home in March. Before that, they had always seen plenty of healthy
fish in the water there.
But now, few fish even swim into their dock, said Betty Aycock.
Birds of prey such as osprey and blue herons also have disappeared.
"It's kinda quiet around here," she said. "I
guess they all died, and I don't know how to get them to come
back."
The state's data, however, show something different, Forstchen
said.
"The sampling we did two weeks ago in the Indian River
Lagoon showed a nearly similar number of fish to what crews had
seen historically," she said. "It led us to conclude
that the fish are not all dead."
DEP does not have historical sampling data on the St. Lucie
River.
More than any statistical evidence that the sick-fish problem
has started to disappear, the most significant sign might be that
anglers have started to reappear along the river and the lagoon.
Cast-netting from the Ernest F. Lyons Jr. Bridge in Stuart
on Friday, Andy Kubiak filled a 5-gallon white bucket with gleaming
silver mullet. None of the fish appeared to have lesions, and
some were strong enough to flip out of the bucket.
"I haven't seen any lesions at all," said Kubiak,
a commercial fisherman who planned to use the mullet for bait.
"(The problem) seems to have gone away."
Under the new Roosevelt Bridge, other anglers gathered on the
shaded pier, casting lines into the murky brown water. Most said
they had stopped fishing after the lesions appeared, but had returned
because the Army Corps of Engineers has slowed freshwater releases
from Lake Okeechobee.
Some anglers testing the waters nearby said they remain skeptical
about the safety of the fish.
But others are more confident.
"I heard the problem was cleaned up, so that's why I came
over," said Herman Young of Pahokee. "If I saw a fish
with lesions on its head, then I might worry about it."
GRAPHIC: (B/W) photo by Ian Solender: Kristy Halvorsen, a student
and part-time Department of Environmental Protection employee,
works Friday in the DEP's trailer parked by the Snook Nook in
Jensen Beach.
LOAD-DATE: May 12, 1998