Algae Blooms

Conditions are right for toxic Pfiesteria to appear in Middle River and some upper Chesapeake Bay creeks later this summer if the region's deep drought doesn't break, said a top Department of Natural Resources scientist. Robert E. Magnien, who supervises the state's study of the harmful microorganism, said scientists have consistently found it, apparently in a dormant stage, in Middle River since they began looking in 1999. That summer, fish with the bloody sores associated with Pfiesteria turned up in the river, one of the Baltimore area's most popular boating and fishing spots.

The environmental group Blue Water Baltimore is investigating what it believes is a sewage spill at the Inner Harbor near the Domino Sugar Plant. David Flores, the water quality manager for the group's Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper program, said he inspected the area near Key Highway on his boat on Monday afternoon and believes, based on the odor and grayish appearance of the water, that a quarter-mile sewage discharge is stretching throughout the...

WASHINGTON -- The federal government is putting together an emergency team to help Maryland and other states cope with outbreaks of toxic algae such as Pfiesteria.Officials from at least nine federal agencies met at the White House on Tuesday and pledged to pool resources.Donald Scavia, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the agencies want to make sure that if Pfiesteria returns to East Coast waters this year, states will have help with everything from sampling affected rivers to testing seafood to make sure it's safe to eat.This spring's warm weather and abundant rainfall have created "favorable conditions" for renewed outbreaks of Pfiesteria, red tide and other algae that endanger people and sea life, Suzanne E. Schwartz, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Oceans and Coastal Protection Division, said in Senate testimony yesterday.

A four-year search for toxic Pfiesteria in Maryland waters has uncovered evidence that several other varieties of harmful algae, often fueled by pollution, may be seriously damaging bay life. For years, scientists thought that the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland's coastal bays were mostly free from the harmful algae blooms that plague seriously polluted waters around the world - and are increasingly seen in state waters at this time of year. But after Pfiesteria killed fish and sickened people on some Eastern Shore rivers in 1997, the State Department of Natural Resources fielded teams of biologists to look for signs of the toxic cell.

PHILADELPHIA - Predatory algae blooms are a mysterious and growing global threat to fish and even humans, scientists at Woods Hole Institute said at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science."

The fish kills that have plagued Baltimore's Inner Harbor and nearby creeks over the past two weeks may have eased with the dip in temperatures, but scientists caution that's not the last we've seen of potentially toxic and even deadly algae blooms in area waters. As summer heats up again, potentially dangerous microorganisms could bloom in the wake of algae blamed for suffocating fish from Dundalk to Annapolis. Officials are keeping tabs on the growth of algae around the Chesapeake Bay that have poisoned tens of thousands of fish — including one type found blooming in a Cecil County river that has in the past killed two dogs and can also be fatal to humans.

J. Adam Hewison has done his homework - trolling Web sites for facts on dissolved oxygen, talking with watermen who have worked on the Chesapeake Bay most of their lives - and he says he knows a cheap way to clean the bay. The answer is windmills. Not your typical barnyard variety, but a variation that could be rigged on barges, along shorelines and near oyster beds to deliver life-giving oxygen to some of the most polluted areas of the bay, watery trenches that are void of life today.

WASHINGTON -- Maryland scientists think the long, heavy rains that fell from February to June are the main reason the state's rivers were spared a major outbreak of Pfiesteria piscicida this year.The rains set off a cascade of changes that turned the Pocomoke River from a perfect breeding ground for the toxic microbe in 1997 into a place where Pfiesteria merely put in an appearance this year, Maryland Department of Natural Resources ecologist Robert Magnien said yesterday."These are the first ideas we have," Magnien said at a gathering of scientists and policy-makers at Georgetown University.

The caption of a photograph accompanying a Maryland section article Monday about the Patuxent River misspelled Michael Glaser's name.The Sun regrets the error.BROOMES ISLAND -- Bernie Fowler likes to recall that when he was a young man, the Patuxent River was so clear he could see his toes on the grassy bottom as he waded out shoulder-deep, dipping for soft crabs.That was more than 30 years ago, when he ran Bernie's Boat Rentals here. Yesterday, Mr. Fowler, a state senator who represents Southern Maryland, lost sight of his feet -- he wore white sneakers -- after he had waded into the cool, murky water past his knees.

LITTLE GASPARILLA ISLAND, Fla. -- All Susan Leydon has to do is stick her head outside and take a deep breath of sea air, and she can tell whether her 10-year-old son is about to get sick. If she coughs or feels a tickle in the back of her throat, she lays down the law: No playing on the beach. No, not even in the yard. Come back inside. Now. The Leydons thought they found paradise a decade ago when they moved from Massachusetts to this narrow barrier island, reachable only by boat, with gentle surf and balmy air that feels like velvet on the skin.