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cause. Also, in 1997 there was a high incidence of fish lesions in the Rappahannock River and final verification of Pfiesteria involvement is pending.
Last fall fisherman reported that 30 percent of the fish in the Maryland rivers involved showed lesions (scientifically a 10 percent incidence is considered high.) The Maryland Department of Natural Resources, similar to Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality, finally looked into the problem in the spring of 1997.
Lacouture said he served on a technical advisory committee for the Pocomoke River, but within a week (on Aug. 6) after the committee was formed, a fish-lesion problem changed to a fish-kill problem.
A second fish-kill occurred in late August. Gn both occasions Maryland closed the Pocomoke River. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Pfiesteria is probably in every river in Virginia,” he said.
Politics
It has taken five years to get acknowledgement that Pfiesteria exists because of the politics surrounding the issue. Fish lesions have been observed for years on the Pocomoke River, but the Pfiesteria level was not high enough to kill them. Fish lesions can be caused by a number of factors, but when the fish-kills started the problem had to be recognized.
This is an election year and Virginia has taken the lead on doing their own testing. The state bought two electron microscopes for Old Dominion University and the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences with a special grant and are arranging training for the staff. A gene probe is also being developed which is a faster and more efficient way of detecting Pfiesteria. When research money is made available, mostly from the federal government, it will be a considerable amount, he ventured.
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