THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 15, 1994 TAG: 9407150528
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Scientists with the state Division of Environmental Management and North Carolina State University are investigating a series of fish kills under way on the Pamlico and Neuse rivers, which they believe are linked, in part, to a newly discovered ``killer algae.''
``A lot of it is linked to the weather,'' said Division of Environmental Management spokesman Don Reuter. ``During the summer months, this is a pretty common occurrence.''
The fish kill on the Pamlico River was discovered during the July 4 holiday by a Division of Environmental Management staff member who was on the river. A pocket of dead menhaden was also found in the lower Pamlico River July 6, Reuter said in an interview Thursday.
Isolated pockets of dead fish continue to be found in a five- to 10-mile stretch of the Pamlico River between Hawkins Beach and Bath Creek on the north side of the Pamlico River, according to the Division of Marine Fisheries.
The fish kill on the Neuse River apparently stretches along a broad area of the river and follows a wedge of salt water that was found from the mouth of the river to the bridge in New Bern. Samples taken in the Neuse River water quality tests also showed the presence of blue-green algae, Reuter said.
Both the Neuse and the Pamlico rivers, in areas near the fish kills, contain high concentrations of a toxic algae - a type of ``dinoflagellate'' that stuns fish with toxins and then strips them of their skin - discovered about three years ago by scientists at North Carolina State, according to one Division of Marine Fisheries official.
The Neuse and Pamlico river fish kills involve thousands of fish and are much smaller than kills that occurred in 1989 and 1991 when millions of dead menhaden began washing ashore in the two rivers, state officials said.
About two years ago, JoAnn M. Burkholder, associate professor of aquatic botany at North Carolina State, and Ed Noga, an associate professor and an aquatic animal scientist at North Carolina State's veterinary school, announced that they had discovered a new type of algae so lethal they believed it has been responsible for many of the fish kills along the state's coast.
Burkholder and other researchers believe the algae has been responsible for about two-thirds of the fish kills reported in the Pamlico River since 1991 and over 30 percent of the fish kills in the Neuse and New rivers.
While the algae is most widespread in the Pamlico and Neuse rivers, it has been found in waterways in Virginia and Maryland and as far north as the Delaware Bay and as far south as Florida's Gulf Coast, recent studies show. by CNB