TITLE: The cell from hell Toxic algae that thrive on pollutants are killing fish, making people sick, and spreading nationwide
BYLINE: Michael Satchell
EST. PAGES: 3
DATE: 07/28/97
DOCID: USN23495
SOURCE: U.S. News & World Report; USN
SECTION: U.S. News; PAGE: 26-28
(Copyright 1997)
Retired North Carolina fisherman David Jones struggles with
symptoms similar to those of several chronic afflictions: the
mental confusion of Alzheimer's, the physical crippling of multiple
sclerosis, the wasting of AIDS. But Jones has none of these.
Doctors say all the evidence points to a neurological assault
by algae.
Jones is one of about 100 North Carolina victims--fishermen,
commercial divers, marine construction workers--who appear to
have been poisoned by pfiesteria, a toxic alga found in the state's
eastern rivers and estuaries. The victims' symptoms can include
open sores, nausea, memory loss, fatigue, disorientation, and
the near-total incapacitation suffered by Jones.
Pfiesteria was first discovered in 1991 and has since
killed hundreds of millions of fish in North Carolina. State
workers have used bulldozers to clear piles of dead menhaden
from the beaches. A 1995 outbreak wiped out 14 million fish,
temporarily closed parts of the Neuse River, and put 364,000
acres of shellfish beds off limits. Since then, the problem has
been spreading. Around the country, outbreaks of pfiesteria and
other harmful algal blooms known as red or brown tides are devastating
marine life and posing risks for fishermen in bays and estuaries.
Last summer, 20,000 rockfish in a Maryland fish farm on the Chesapeake
Bay were killed by the organism. Earlier this month, "very,
very concerned" Maryland officials launched a $250,000 emergency
study of what is causing pfiesteria-type lesions on fish in the
lower Pocomoke River, which empties into the Chesapeake Bay.
Dead sea cows. In the past 25 years, more than 35 poisonous
algae outbreaks have killed or sickened fish, shellfish, marine
mammals, seabirds, underwater vegetation--and people. On the
eastern tip of Long Island, a brown tide has wiped out a $20
million bay-scallop industry. In the past two years, a red tide
on Florida's west coast has killed 150 manatees, about 10 percent
of the state's sea cow population. And in Texas, the Corpus Christi
area has been plagued for seven years with a brown tide that
kills eelgrass and other underwater vegetation. Their habitat
destroyed, the fish have disappeared and, with them, many of
the tourists.
Scientists view these problems as an urgent warning of
the declining health of the nation's 127 ecologically vital and
commercially valuable bays and estuaries. Increasing development
of coastal areas is sending more sewage effluent, farm runoff,
and factory wastewater flowing into bays and estuaries, triggering
poisonous algal blooms on all three coasts.
Pfiesteria is a nasty little customer that some biologists
have dubbed the "cell from hell." The alga is a dinoflagellate,
a class of single-celled aquatic organisms that exhibit both
plant and animal characteristics. Most of the time the cells
remain in a hard, cystlike condition in the sediment of bays
and estuaries.
But when fish swim by, the organisms swell and transform
themselves into aggressive ambush predators with twin, whiplike
tails called flagella that propel the killers toward their prey.
They then release a toxin that is 1,000 times more powerful than
cyanide. Even in minute quantities, the poison is deadly to fish,
dispatching a guppy in 10 minutes and a 20-pound striped bass
in four hours. Stricken fish gasp for oxygen and swim upside
down or in circles. The toxin also causes the distinctive oozing
red sores found both on fish and on humans who have been in direct
contact with the organism. The microscopic attackers feed on
the dying fish, reproduce furiously, then change shape when sated
and return to dormancy in the sediment. Although attacks on humans
are far more rare, the organism does pose significant risks to
fishermen or people in prolonged contact with pfiesteria. Laboratory
tests show a voracious appetite for human blood, and its neurotoxin
is powerful enough to harm humans. JoAnn Burkholder, a scientist
at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, discovered the
microbe, along with her assistant. Both experienced severe neurological
symptoms in 1993 after inhaling the toxin in their lab. The
potential threat to humans recently prompted131 physicians in
the New Bern, N.C., area to petition Vice President Al Gore for
federal help to combat what they called "a truly threatening
environmental issue." Their action reflects the growing
frustration in North Carolina over the state's inability to find
answers.
North Carolina's pfiesteria problem has roots in its
booming economy. Urban areas like Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte
are expanding. Large numbers of well-off retirees, eager to live
near the water, have settled along the inland coastal region.
Tourists are flocking to the mountains and beaches. Forests and
marshlands, which filter pollutants and act as buffer zones,
are being rapidly replaced by highways, golf courses, subdivisions,
and strip malls. Along with all this growth has come an increase
of pollutants rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients,
flowing into creeks and rivers that feed the Albemarle-Pamlico
Sound. This has triggered the pfiesteria algal blooms that have
been decimating fish populations since 1991. These outbreaks
are of deep concern because Albemarle-Pamlico Sound, the nation's
second-largest bay after the Chesapeake, provides half of the
nursery waters for fish spawned on the East Coast between Maine
and Florida.
Scientists and environmentalists seeking answers to the
algal assault believe much of the blame lies with the industrial-scale
hog farming that has mushroomed in the eastern part of the state.
A decade ago, North Carolina was the nation's seventh-largest
hog producer. Today, it is second, just behind Iowa. Last year,
more than 16 million porkers were raised between Interstate 95
and the Outer Banks. Hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated,
nutrient-rich hog feces and urine produced at these loosely regulated
factory farms are stored in earthen lagoons that sometimes leak
or collapse. In 1995, for example, 25 million gallons of liquid
swine manure--more than twice the volume of the Exxon Valdez
oil spill in Prince William Sound--flowed into the New River
after a lagoon was breached.
Local officials, environmental groups, and rural residents in North Carolina, fed up with the malodorous impact of the hog industry and its contribution to pfiesteria outbreaks, are pushing for stronger zoning powers and other measures to regulate hog factories and their growth. Besieged by criticism, the National Pork Producers Council says it is researching better methods of manure disposal.
Getting worse. Negative publicity about pfiesteria has
spurred hundreds of calls to state offices from people wondering
if it is safe to vacation in North Carolina. Tourism officials
say there is cause for concern, not alarm. The threat is limited
to the inland waters of Albemarle-Pamlico Sound and its tributary
rivers, and these are being closely monitored. The organism has
not caused problems on the ocean side of the Outer Banks or elsewhere
in the state. Areas where kills have occurred in the Neuse River
estuary and elsewhere have been temporarily closed to fishing,
and people have been warned not to enter the water. Says senior
scientist Donald Anderson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
in Massachusetts:It isn't time to cancel your North Carolina
vacation or sell your property, but pfiesteria reflects a much
bigger problem that's getting worse." Solutions would include
better sewage treatment, controlling farm runoff, and improved
wetlands protection. Among the experimental strategies available
to attack harmful algal blooms is use of algicidal bacteria,
parasites, and viruses.
Environmentalists are frustrated because they feel early
signs of trouble were ignored. In the six years since Burkholder
discovered the organism and warned of its devastating consequences,
officials in the state's Department of Environment, Health and
Natural Resources have belittled her scientific credibility,
downplayed the threat, and failed to attack the problem aggressively.
They dismissed her pollution-cause conclusion as "specious"
and told her to return when she had 10 years of confirming data.
"No state likes bad news, and they have tried to discredit
me and bury my data," says Burkholder. She and others suspect--but
cannot prove--a connection between official foot dragging and
a desire to protect the commercial fishing, tourism, and hog
industries, which pump over $10 billion a year into the state's
economy. But Debbie Crane, spokeswoman for the state environmental
agency, argues otherwise. "Bureaucracy by nature is slow
to respond," says Crane. "Unfortunate things have happened
in the past but now we're working hard to beat this thing."
North Carolina and Maryland are currently trying to do just that,
but with 75 percent of the population now living within 50 miles
of the Great Lakes and the nation's coastlines, the toxic algae
will keep regulators worrying about where the next outbreaks
will occur.
ART: Picture: The toxic alga pfiesteria in action (H. Glasgow); Picture: Scientists are studying whether pfiesteria killed fish in the Pocomoke River on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In North Carolina, authorities needed bulldozers to clear beaches of dead fish. (Erik Freeland--Matrix for USN&WR); Picture: Fisherman David Jones, who suffers from pfiesteria poisoning, and his wife, Margaret, in New Bern, N.C. (Jim Lo Scalzo for USN&WR)