TITLE: Md. Says Microbe May Be to Blame For Ailing Fish
BYLINE: Todd Shields
CREDIT: Washington Post Staff Writer
EST. PAGES: 2
DATE: 07/02/97
DOCID: WP1103089
SOURCE: The Washington Post; WP
EDITION: FINAL; SECTION: METRO; PAGE: B01
CATEGORY: NEWS MARYLAND; NEWS
(Copyright 1997)
Maryland officials said yesterday that a microbe blamed for killing millions of fish in North Carolina may be causing sores afflicting fish in the Pocomoke River, and they outlined plans to intensively monitor the Eastern Shore river. Department of Natural Resources officials also said they would check reports of sores in fish elsewhere in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Since October, watermen have been harvesting fish with deep, open red sores from the Pocomoke, which runs through Worcester and Somerset counties near Virginia. Although the cause of the sores remains undetermined, speculation has centered upon the one-celled predator Pfiesteria piscicida. That microbe "may likely be a problem on the Pocomoke, though we're not certain," Department of Natural Resources Secretary John R. Griffin said yesterday. The possible presence of Pfiesteria has caused concern partly because the microbe has caused health problems, including cramps and difficulty breathing, among laboratory workers exposed to it in high concentrations.
Large field studies have failed to establish any cases of people falling ill from exposure to the microbe in a natural setting, said health officials appearing with Griffin at a briefing for reporters. Jack Howard, a waterman who harvests fish from the Pocomoke, has said he and colleagues suffered persistent lung infections and diarrhea after handling disfigured fish.
Maryland health officials have warned against eating ulcerated fish or swimming in waters where more than 20 percent of the fish have lesions or sores -- levels that watermen say are often surpassed in the Pocomoke. Griffin said authorities, in issuing the warnings, were "erring on the side of caution . . . without unduly alarming people."
Anglers in several places, including the Potomac River and waters near the Bay Bridge, have reported fish with lesions this year. It was unclear whether those reports indicated more disfigured fish than normal, officials said yesterday. Eric May, the Department of Natural Resources' chief aquatic biologist, said officials had found no instances of deep sores away from the Pocomoke.
State workers have established 20 water-monitoring stations on the Pocomoke, up from the two sites normally sampled. So far, water testing has found no abnormalities that might explain the sores, said Dave Goshorn, a state biologist. Today, state biologists will catch rockfish and white perch on the Magothy, Severn and South rivers in Anne Arundel County to check for lesions, and similar trips are scheduled in coming weeks at the mouths of the Patuxent and Potomac rivers in Southern Maryland. Officials also plan to interview people who called a hot line for reporting fish with sores and lesions.