Pfiesteria and Fish "Cell from Hell"
Imagine it's mid summer, the water is about seventy-five degrees, and you are a Stripped bass. It is early morning, and you are looking for a meal to get you through the long day. You spot a pod of baitfish near the surface, so you go on the attack, devouring the tiny morsels until you have had your fill. After your morning snack you slowly cruze along the floor of the bay, stirring up mud as you gently fan your tail back and forth. Soon, you feel worse and worse: your movements slow down, you become disoriented, and small lesions form on your skin causing great pain. Less than twenty minutes later your energy is sapped, the symptoms started you turn belly up and die. Such was the case for tens of thousands of stripped bass and many other species of aquatic life forms in a 4.5 mile stretch of the Pocomock River in eastern Maryland . All of the suffering and dying fish are victims of a microscopic organism called Pfiesteria piscicida- Latin for "fish killer." This nasty one cell fish killer has been blamed for the death of billions of fish in North Carolina, Alabama and Maryland's Eastern Shore. All of this has earned it the name the "cell from hell" . The many unanswered questions about Pfiesteria have left everyone to wounder
These unanswered questions have left an uncertainty in the economy of the affected areas. The economy is taking a hit in two ways. The first is that the fishing industry is losing money from the Pfiesteria hysteria that is leading people away from buying Maryland fish. Furthermore, last summer a fish farm in Maryland lost 20,000 Striped Bass due to the killer cell. This is a huge loss by it self. Add in the lost sales in the market place, and that equals huge losses . The other way they are losing money is the tourist industry. Tourists have flocked to the beaches in recent years. The areas near main bodies of water are turist to the land locked tourist. Marshes and swamps are becoming golf courses and stripe malls, which bring even more pollution to the area. With the Pfiesteria scare many are staying away making store owner's lost money through poor sales, not to mention the fact that the tourists consume a large amount of the commercially harvested fish. Further damage will be done to the commercial fishing industry due the loss of fish population that will take years to replenish, according to DNR biologist Ed Enimate. "The population is down but is already show signs of recovery," said Enimate. The thousands of dead fish and the Pfiesteria toxin in the air cause several health risks. The first to take root is the threat to humans in the area of an out break. Humans who are exposed to the toxins experience memory loss, dizziness, fatigue and asthmatic problems. Researcher Howard Glasgow was studying the mysterious death of fish when he came into contact with the toxins. He came down with these symptoms but they dissipated and now recur when he is active. This leads some to believe that the toxins are stored in body fat . Another feared health risk is the growth of other bacteria and diseases caused by the massive piles of dead fish that wash onto the shore. In some cases the number of fish on the beach has been so great that bulldozers where used to clean the bacteria breeding ground. The most feared and least serious problem is the contamination of the fish harvested comme
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ed Enimate, Carolina University, Striped Bass, , Howard Glasgow, Rresources DNR, Eastern Shore, Pocomock River, fish population, stripped bass, cell hell, local economy, poor management, JoAnn Burkholder, poor management farmers, commercially harvested, pfiesteria left, harvested fish, unanswered questions, commercially harvested fish, floor bay, North Carolina,
Approximate Word count = 1412
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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