Millions and Millions of Dead Fish Around U.S. and WorldJuly 28, 2005
Bay News
Literally millions of dead fish are lining the coast in Matagorda and it's causing a smelly problem.
By Laura Whitley
ABC13 Eyewitness News
(8/04/05 - MATAGORDA CO., TX) ˜ Miles and miles of dead fish are turning up in Texas waters and it's hitting Matagorda especially hard.
SE Houston church destroyed by fast moving blaze NASA astronauts are out of this world on stage, too SE Houston church destroyed by fast moving blaze Young boy dies after falling from pickup in Fort Bend Co. Furniture restoration business goes up in flames in Heights area Family, friends say goodbye to girl killed by bus last week Newspaper reports power program a money loser for state Young boy recovering from injuries after being bitten by shark Fight allegedly over beer ends in fatal stabbing
From the sky, a sea of white is covering the mouth of the Colorado River. Upon closer look, you'll see dead fish -
millions of them.
"Unbelievable if you haven't seen it before," said Matagorda County Commissioner George Deshotel.
The stunning images of devastation run for miles. It's one of the largest fish kills people in the town of Matagorda have seen in years.
Ronnie Dodd runs a spring bridge and watched dozens of fish die from his perch.
"The flounder were trying to get to the side of the edge of the bank and trying to come up and get air," he told us.
Surprisingly, this is a natural event caused by stagnant water and little wind, rain, or flow.
"Millions of these menhaden come in from the Gulf into the Colorado River and because of low tidal action and low wind action, there's nothing to replenish the oxygen in the water," said Deshotel.
Texas Parks and Wildlife is closely monitoring the situation.
"It'll run its course, and when it's done, it's done," said Bill Balboa with Texas Parks and Wildlife. "It may happen again, but it happens all up and down the coast."
But for now, Matagoda is the worst place...a place with a community that depends on the fish that are quickly dying.
The fish began dying a few days ago. If the menhaden keep coming in and the conditions don't change, more can die. And that's not good news for the local economy.
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I found this list on GLP.
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11 MILLION SALMON MISSING
Warm waters blamed for disappearance of sockeye
CTV.ca News Staff
In the few places on the B.C. coast where sockeye salmon fishing is allowed, boats are coming back to port empty or near-empty this summer, as the annual sockeye run has so far failed to materialize.
The Skeena sockeye run, initially forecast to be 1.2 million fish, has been about half that number. There are also low numbers on the Fraser and Nass Rivers.
On the Fraser River, 11 million salmon were predicted to return, but the peak last weekend saw about 100,000 fish.
Because of the crisis, the commercial fishery has yet to open and the native fishery has been restricted.
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Pennsylvania
Fish kill merits top priority
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
It should be unsettling to more than just anglers that unusual numbers of young smallmouth bass are being found dead in sections of the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers.
Specifically, biologists and anglers are finding large numbers of dying or dead fish with skin lesions downstream from Lewistown in the Juniata and downstream from Sunbury to below Harrisburg in the Susquehanna.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has attributed the problem to a bacterial infection, but the source of that bacteria remains a mystery. Fortunately, the commission says the bacteria -- columnaris, which is caused by environmental or nutritional factors -- posts no threat to humans.
But it'
s nevertheless troubling that dead fish are turning up on some of the best bass fishing waters in the United States, and waters used for various recreational purposes and in some cases drinking water in our backyard. And while the smallmouth are the afflicted at the moment, the bacteria can be picked up by other freshwater species; they have been found in smaller numbers on white suckers in the same waters.
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Louisiana
Environmentalists hope to find cause of massive fish kill in Bayou Lacombe
03:56 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Dave McNamara / WWL-TV Reporter
Environmentalists are looking into what'
s causing thousands of dead fish to turn up on the Northshore in Bayou Lacombe.
The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation agreed with Glockner that a fish kill of this size, involving these types of fish, is usually an indicator that something is wrong.
The dead fish, mostly shad and pogies, began popping up last week on both sides of the Bayou, as far as three-quarters of a mile from the bayou basin, according to local fisherman and restaurateur Cliff Glockner.
"I seen about a hundred, hundred-fifty thousand right here on the top of the water. All stressed, getting ready to die," Glockner said. "This is the fourth fish kill in a week and a half. It started last Monday and it went for about two days up the bayou. But as the water fell at night, it progressively moved down to a stretch about half-a-mile long."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
South Dakota
Posted on Tue, Aug. 09, 2005
Fisheries officials looking into dead white bass
Associated Press
PIERRE, S.D. - State fisheries officials have been investigating unusually high numbers of dead white bass washing ashore on Lake Oahe during the past week.
Robert Hanten, a fisheries biologist with the Game, Fish and Parks Department, said white bass die-offs are unfortunate and messy, but not unprecedented in South Dakota. They'
ve happened in the past on Lake Sharpe and Lake Francis Case, as well as in other parts of the country, he said.
"It is not uncommon to see a few dead fish on a normal day on the water," Hanten said in a release. "But when we get reports of hundreds of dead fish, an investigation is necessary."
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Texas
Millions of fish dead near Matagorda
Associated Press
MATAGORDA - Millions of small fish have died in the waters of Matagorda Harbor, the Intracoastal Canal and Colorado River in what some in this small coastal community are calling one of the largest local fish kills in recent years.
Recent hot, windless weather has increased water temperatures and lowered the amount of oxygen water can hold, said John O'
Connell, Matagorda County marine extension agent.
Sunlight helps microscopic algae in the water produce oxygen. Menhaden, a small bait fish, feed off of the algae and are drawn to the waters in large numbers, O'
Connell said.
The demand for oxygen has exceeded production, and the fish have died and risen to the surface, said Willie Younger, a marine education specialist with the Texas A&M Marine Advisory Service.
(snip)
Fish kills are a natural process but rarely reach the magnitude seen this week, Younger said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Florida
Gulf of Mexico mystery
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
About 20 dead sea turtles have washed ashore in Pinellas County in the past three days, an extremely high number that has doctors and scientists puzzled.
Dive instructor Michael Miller took underwater video to try to figure out the mystery.
"Right now, anywhere we go from shore to 20 miles offshore, from Sarasota to Tarpon Springs, we can'
t find a single creature alive on the bottom right now," said Miller.
Miller says he'
s never seen such death and devastation under water in his 20 years of diving.
"All the coral, all the sponges, all the crabs, not a single living thing, all the star fish, the brittle stars, everything'
s dead," said Miller.
~~~~~~~~~
Florida
Red Tide'
s Gone; Dead Fish Aren'
t
By DAVID SOMMER
Published: Aug 9, 2005
CLEARWATER - When marine researchers issued a favorable red tide update Friday, they forgot to tell the fish.
All weekend, dead fish continued to wash up on some area beaches, local officials said.
``Red tide is a living organism. ... What you are seeing today could be totally different'
'
from what was reported last week, said Jeremy Lake, spokesman for the state Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg.
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Minnesota
Heat kills thousands of fish on Pebble Lake
By Brandon Stahl
Alan Lunde was boating on Pebble Lake with a colleague on Saturday, July 16, when the two noticed at least two dozen dead fish floating on the water. The next day, Alan and his wife, Carolyn, went out and saw anywhere from 500 to 800.
By Monday night, the residents along the north and east shore of the lake were dealing with a massive fish kill, having to clean up anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 fish.
"It'
s never happened before, and it'
s never happened since," said Steve Rufer, who has lived on the lake since 2003 and from 1991 to 1998.
Thermal stress
The lake'
s tullibee, a species of cold water fish related to trout and salmon, died off from the warm water temperatures, according to Arlin Schalekamp, the DNR'
s Area Fisheries Manager.
Schalekamp said the tullibee need to swim in colder water with higher oxygen levels, but the summer'
s hot temperatures depleted the oxygen levels, forcing the fish to swim toward the surface where they died from thermal stress.
"It'
s fairly common," Schalekamp said. "We see it just about every year where we have one or two lakes that have these tullibee."
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Illinois
Fish at VanWinkle Lake dying from lack of oxygen, other woes
By LARRY ESKRIDGE/of the Daily Ledger
Wednesday, August 10, 2005 11:25 AM CDT
Approximately two weeks ago local residents reported a large number of dead fish floating on Van Winkle Lake near Wallace Park.
Rob Hilsbeck of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said the fish kill was caused by the low oxygen content of the water, brought on by the low water level and the high temperatures. He added that algae blooms also contributed to the problem, and that the lake was not a good habitat because of the high siltation.
Hilsbeck went on to say that the situation was aggravated by the drought conditions. He noted that the heat made a situation where the water could not hold oxygen, and that it could be made worse by a sudden cold front or a brief rain.
Hilsbeck also said the larger fish, because they needed more oxygen, were the first to die.
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Oregon
‚Dead zone‚ may be developing on Oregon coast
August 8, 2005
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) ˜ Starving birds and fewer fish along the Oregon coast are a warning sign that another seasonal "dead zone" may be developing as a result of global warming, biologists say.
No one is sure why it happened. But leading scientists at Oregon State University blame steadily rising sea temperatures, which increasingly appears tied to human-caused global warming.
"The oceans are generally warming up, and there are all sorts of signs that something strange is afoot," said Ronald Neilson, an Oregon State professor and U.S. Forest Service researcher who specializes in climate. "It‚s not new to have change happen. It‚s how suddenly it‚s happening."
A record 181 adult murres turned up dead on a 4.6-mile stretch of beach just south of Newport in July, more than in any other month in the 28 years teams have surveyed the stretch.
Brandt‚s cormorants, another fishing bird, have washed up dead at rates 50 to 80 times those of previous years, said Julia Parrish, a University of Washington professor who leads a coastal bird survey.
"It‚s just awful," said William Sydeman, director of marine ecology for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory in California. "It‚s just as bad as we‚ve ever seen it."
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South Wales
Posted on: Monday, 8 August 2005, 06:00 CDT
Fish Are Killed By Chemical in River
An investigation has been launched after thousands of fish were wiped out by a mystery pollutant - for the second time in a year. More than 20,000 fish, mostly young salmon and trout, were found dead in the River Ebbw, in the Crumlin area this week.
Environment Agency officers were alerted on Monday about a mystery chemical being discharged into the river from a drainage culvert.
The pollutant is believed to be some form of detergent which left other wildlife and invertebrates unharmed.
By the time it had reached Cwmcarn it had lost its power to kill, but had already affected four miles of the river.
John Gregory, the agency'
s environment manager is appealing for information and help in tracing the pollution source.
He said: '
It'
s heartbreaking to see so many fish killed for the second time in a year. We had a similar pollution last August, but were unable to find the source, even with the help of the local authority in searching the drainage system.'
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Indonesia
Bekasi seeks cause of dead fish
City News - August 10, 2005
BEKASI: The Bekasi Council urged the Environmental Management Agency to investigate the death of thousands of fish in Kali Bekasi river since Sunday, suspecting untreated industrial waste had polluted the river.
"The agency has to move fast," councillor Heri Koswara was quoted as saying by Antara on Tuesday, "don'
t wait until one resident becomes a victim of water pollution."
Councillor Muhammad Hasyim Affandi from the council'
s Commission B that oversees the environment said that they would ask the agency to submit a report on the cause of the phenomenon.
"It first happened a few months ago at every low tide, we could easily pick up thousands of dying fish in the river," said Muksin, 45, a resident of Margahayu subdistrict. "I don'
t know what caused it (the death), but they are less tasty compared to fresh ones."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Indonesia
Many fish die of asphyxiation
City News - August 09, 2005
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Fish in the waters around Gosong Sekati, Karya, Panggan and Pramuka islets in the Thousand Islands regency have died due to asphyxiation, according to an Environmental Management Agency statement on Monday.
Kakap (Lates calcarifer), Kerapu (Epinephalus tauvina), Pari (Elasmobranchii) and Sembilang (Plotosus sp) fish were among the species found dead on Friday around the four islets.
"The phenomenon was likely caused by a drop in oxygen content in the water due to a rapid proliferation of the phytoplankton population, which absorbs oxygen in the water," the agency'
s head Kosasih Wirahadikusumah told The Jakarta Post.
Kosasih said his agency had taken samples of the water from the locations and sent them to the laboratory of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences'
s (LIPI) oceanography for examination.
"Hopefully, the laboratory could come up with the result this week and we could know exactly what causes the deaths of the fish," he said.
Head of the Thousand Islands Marine Park Sumarto said that it had been occurring since Friday and was the third major case of its kind this year.
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Sea '
dead zones'
threaten fish
BBC News Online environment correspondent in Jeju, Korea
Sea areas starved of oxygen will soon damage fish stocks even more than unsustainable catches, the United Nations believes. The UN Environment Programme says excessive nutrients, mainly nitrogen from human activities, are causing these "dead zones" by stimulating huge growths of algae.
Since the 1960s the number of oxygen-starved areas has doubled every decade, as human nitrogen production has outstripped natural sources. Unep made its remarks as it launched its Global Environment Outlook Year Book 2003.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By DYLAN DARLING
Thousands of dead fish were found belly up on the Klamath River southwest of Klamath Falls this week, the apparent victims of poor water conditions brought on by hot weather.
Among the dead are some young endangered sucker fish, but most of the fish are tui chubs and fathead minnows, and is no reason for alarm, federal officials said. The fish die-off was reported Tuesday morning by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation scientists, who said it occurred Monday evening.
Dead fish were found on a seven-mile stretch of the Klamath River below Lake Ewauna and in irrigation diversions on the river. The number of dead suckers were estimated to be "several thousand" suckers, said Rae Olsen, Bureau spokeswoman.
"Thousands is the only thing I can tell you," she said.
The dead suckers were found mostly near the Lost River Diversion Channel just south of Klamath Falls, said Roger Smith, fisheries biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Afternoon highs have hovered in the 90s since last Thursday.
"And the day before that it was 86," Smith said.
The warm air makes for hot water. Water in the river was measured at 82 degrees at 4 p.m. Monday.
Suckers can tolerate 75-degree water for quite some time, but it still harms their health, he said.
Fish die-offs are common summertime occurrences that happen because of a combination of low water and high temperatures. When temperatures go up, the water quality goes down because oxygen levels are lowered by decaying algae, Smith said.
Although the warm water and algae blooms can prove fatal for suckers - especially those only about a year old - and tui chubs and fathead minnows, trout usually avoid the danger by swimming to cool pockets of water and away from the algae.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOWVILLE, N.Y. (AP) - Three million gallons of liquid manure spilled from a dairy farm and into a nearby river, creating a smelly flow that was blamed for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of fish.
The toxic tide had traveled some 20 miles on the Black River by Friday and was expected to flow past Watertown, a city of 25,000, which shut off its water intake.
Farmers in this dairy-intensive county were warned not to let their cows drink from the river, and emergency officials were trying Friday to flush out the contamination by increasing the flow from the Beaver River, which feeds the Black River.
The process could take a week or two, said Jim Martin, Lewis County'
s emergency manager.
"If we get some good rain over the weekend, it'
s going to help a lot. If it stays hot and dry, it'
s going to stay awhile," Martin said.
The manure spilled from a lagoon at the large Marks Farms late Wednesday or early Thursday when an earthen wall blew out, sending the liquid into a drainage ditch and then into the river, Martin said.
State officials estimated the manure had killed hundreds of thousands of fish, including perch, bass, catfish, shiners and walleye.
The state health department was monitoring the manure. No human illnesses had been reported, Martin said.
No charges had been filed against the farm owners as of Friday morning, he said.
The farm, about 5 miles south of Lowville, is owned by David and Jacquelyn Peck and William Marks, according to federal records. A woman answering the phone there Friday said the owners were not speaking to reporters.
Steven Fuller, who owns a riverside restaurant in Lowville, said his restaurant had many cancellations Thursday. "The smell is your typical dairy air, you might say," he said.
Watertown can draw from a 60 million gallon reserve supply of water through the weekend, if need be, said Brian Gaffney, the city'
s treatment plant operator.
The spill was expected to reach Lake Ontario in coming days.
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Fourth Fish Kill Investigated in the Region
8/15/2005
Usually a breeze during a hot summer day is a welcomed treat. But over the last several days, The wind has been blowing the scent of dead fish into a Metairie neighborhood. It‚s all the result of a fish kill in the 17th street canal.
In a canal best known as a border between Orleans and Jefferson Parishes, silver specks glisten in the water. But take a closer look, and you'
ll see the sun shining on dead fish.
In Bucktown workers from the department of environmental quality used a water quality probe to measure temperature and oxygen levels.
"We had identical conditions in Bayou Lacombe last week with the fish kill that occurred there," said John Calvin of the Department of Environmental Quality.
The cause: nothing toxic, according to DEQ. Just high heat and low tide, which means low to no oxygen in the water.
"If there'
s no oxygen for them, then they'
re in trouble. They'
re starved for oxygen and they perished," Jeff Dauzat of the Department of Environmental Quality.
According to DEQ, this is the fourth fish kill in the region.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cause of Carmel fish kill probed
By MICHAEL RISINIT
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: August 16, 2005)
CARMEL ˜What killed hundreds of fish over the weekend in the Croton Falls Reservoir remained a mystery yesterday.
"Never in my life have I seen anything like it," said Morgan Seymour Jr., 76, a lifelong Carmel resident and avid outdoorsman.
Seymour was describing the 1,000 dead fish ˜ sawbellies, white perch and yellow perch ˜ he saw at the Croton Falls Reservoir floating in the water or washed up on the shore. A retired railroad engineer, he was driving down Stoneleigh Avenue Friday evening when he noticed a mob of gulls and cormorants diving into the water near where the road crosses the reservoir.
"I said to myself, '
That'
s unusual,'
" Seymour said. "So I turned the car around and went back for a look."
The reservoir is part of New York City'
s water supply, which delivers drinking water to 9 million people, including part of Putnam County and most of Westchester. City and state environmental authorities yesterday were looking for the cause of the fish kill.
"For now, we just don'
t know," said Ian Michaels, a spokesman for the city'
s Department of Environmental Protection. "We had people investigating over the weekend and today."
The DEP oversees the water supply. Ongoing dam construction has lowered the water level by about 50 feet, squeezing the Croton Reservoir'
s fish into smaller and shallower areas than usual.
Michaels said researchers were testing for various pollutants and looking to see if the construction upstream at the Middle Branch Reservoir released any contaminants into the water. They were also monitoring the reservoir'
s content of dissolved oxygen ˜ what fish need to survive.
"It seems whatever the condition was has subsided. We'
re going to keep trying to figure it out." he said.
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High temperatures, too little oxygen cited as probable causes for thousands of dead fish found floating in East Rockaway
BY ERIK GERMAN AND SID CASSESE
STAFF WRITERS
August 18, 2005
Several thousand dead fish were found floating yesterday in East Rockaway in a local waterway known as Mill River, a serious die-off state authorities blamed on high temperatures and low oxygen levels in the water.
Officials measured the water temperature at an unusually high 84 to 86 degrees, said Maureen Wren, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Many residents call it the worst fish kill they'
ve seen in their area. "All the shrimp, the baby bunkers, carp, white perch, striped bass, all dead," said resident Steve Christen.sen, 57, as he stood on a dock on the Oceanside shore of the river.
Christensen, who added that many crabs also died, said the fish died beginning Tuesday night and he saw them surfacing with mouths gaping, as if gasping for air.
One expert said this may have been exactly what the fish were doing before they expired. "They'
re trying to bubble more oxygen into the water that passes over their gills," said Gordon Taylor, a biologist at the Marine Sciences Research Center at Stony Brook University. Taylor said marine life often exhibit this behavior when water becomes hypoxic -- when oxygen levels drop dangerously low as temperatures rise.
The DEC and Hempstead town officials also blamed .hypoxia.
"More than likely, it'
s a lack of oxygen in the water," said Ron Masters, the Town of Hempstead'
s commissioner of conservation and waterways.
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Dead Fish At Cary Lake Probably A Result From Heat, Water Official Says
POSTED: 6:46 pm EDT August 17, 2005
CARY, N.C. -- Sorching temperatures created problems at a Cary lake, leaving many people in the area wondering what happened, as well as a mess for crews to clean.
Hundreds of dead shad fish floated to the surface of Lochmere Lake.
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Lake Koocanusa fish kill investigated
Posted: Thursday, Aug 18, 2005 - 08:40:10 am PDT
By JIM MANN
The Daily Inter Lake
They don'
t know how it happened, but officials with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks intend to sleuth their way to answers behind a another fish kill on Lake Koocanusa.
"We'
ve seen identical types of kills at least twice before," said Jim Vashro, the department'
s regional fisheries manager.
The difference this time was a timely report and a quick response that allowed the department'
s fish health specialist to collect samples of the dead kokanee salmon before they decomposed.
"Obviously, as the fish decompose, any evidence is degraded," Vashro said. "It appears the bulk of the fish died on Sunday and Monday and it was reported late Monday. Our fish health specialist from Great Falls was able to find fish that were still dying on Tuesday, so he got very good samples. The kill involved "thousands" of kokanee salmon, with some odd circumstances.
"What'
s interesting is every dead fish is an adult kokanee that was getting ready to spawn in about a month," Vashro said. "No other fish species are affected and no young kokanee are affected, so that'
s kind of peculiar."
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released its preliminary findings in this spring'
s dolphin die-off; 107 dolphins died in 35 days here in the Panhandle.
With every dolphin carcass, another piece of the puzzle was discovered, but researchers are still searching for the main picture.
Dr. Teri Rowles with NOAA led the research response effort along the Panhandle.
"It look like they died shortly after ingesting a meal. Many of the animals had whole or partially digested fish in the stomach," he says.
NOAA got involved almost immediately to study this unusual mortality event. This is the third dolphin die-off related to red tide in the Gulf of Mexico, and the second one off the Florida Panhandle. However, this time the animals showed a higher level of brevetoxin, which is produced by red tide.
Ron Hardy, the owner of Gulf World, was the on-site coordinator for the dolphin recovery. He says every bit of information is useful.
"When you take probably the most popular living mammal in the ocean, the whales and the dolphins, to monitor their health and what'
s going on with them. I think tells us the health of the ocean itself."
NOAA dismissed any link between the die-off and military activity in the Gulf or possible pollutants as a distinctive factor in the dolphin deaths. Hardy says nothing is being taken for granted in this research process, despite taking some time.
"There'
s a lot of things we'
ve learned that doesn'
t involve red tide. When you get that many animals and you can do the necropsies and do all the tissue, so we'
re just learning hundreds and hundreds of things."
The focus now is why the toxin is killing the dolphins and at what level is the toxin potentially fatal, but until all the questions are answered, the puzzle remains unsolved.
Submitted by Bill Sant |
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