Abstract
Pfiesteria piscicida has been killing fish in East Coast estuaries and rivers for at least six years. But a concerted and coordinated federal response to the problem did not begin until this September. Since then, eight federal agencies began collaborating to intensify research into these microbes and the ecological conditions underlying their outbreaks. Also, the Environmental Protection Agency started to plan steps to strengthen control over the nutrients that may be causing Pfiesteria outbreaks. And on Sept. 25, Congress held a hearing to discuss the Pfiesteria problem (C&EN, Sept. 29, page 8). The first fish kill in the wild attributed to Pfiesteria took place in North Carolina in May 1991. That was followed by massive outbreaks of the microbe in 1995 and 1997 that killed millions of fish in North Carolina estuaries. In Maryland, Pfiestena was first observed in October 1996, when menhaden, fish used for bait or converted to oil and fertilizer, were found with ...
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