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Oil spill causes Heterosigma bloom

Dear colleagues,

The title of this mail is an anecdote which described what happened in southern Brazil regarding Heterosigma bloom. Paranaguá bay is a large mixohaline ecosystem with two main sectors. In February an oil spill was detect in the southern sector of the bay. At the same time fisherman start to complain about fish killing at the northern part of the bay, blaming the oil spill. The area was surveyed by air and a discoloration was noted in the northern sector. It was evident that was not oil and a sample was send to Dr Luciano Fernadez from Universidade Federal do Parana, who counted very high numbers of Heterosigma. This organism has being reported in Brazilian waters before, but apparently this was the first time it bloomed (or not!).

Thank you very much for all those who kindly replied my message. I got no information on human harm rather economics. There were also several interesting information about this organism and it harm effect.

Luis Antonio O Proença, PhD
Oceanografia - CTTMar
UNIVALI
C. Postal 360
Itajaí SC, 88302-202
Brazil

tel: (47) 341 7713, Fax: (47) 3417633

pagina: www.cttmar.univali.br/algas