Species

Sometimes subtext is much more interesting than text. Take the case of "Species," for example.On the surface, it's another routine bug-hunt movie, with a team of crack experts heading down into the sewers to do battle with a slimy green monster with mandibles of steel. "Them!" did it better 41 years ago and "Alien" did it authoritatively 14 years ago.But underneath the stale sci-fi/horror conventions, the movie is saying something quite interesting and it's too bad Hugh Grant didn't see it in time to spare himself such embarrassment.

The blue-green algae that bloomed in tidal rivers throughout the upper Chesapeake Bay last month was toxic, an independent laboratory has confirmed, but so far has not harmed wildlife or caused human health problems, state officials said yesterday. Some strains of the algae, identified as Microcystis aeruginosa, can cause skin problems and flu-like symptoms in humans and can sicken or kill livestock or pets that drink it. Tests performed at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, confirmed the presence of the algae's toxin, said Rob Magnien, director of tidewater ecosystems assessments for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The biological diversity of the United States is far richer than previously imagined, embracing more than 200,000 known species and more major ecological zones than any other country. Indeed, scientists who compiled the inventory, collected over the past quarter-century, estimate that the eventual number of species found, ranging from microscopic marine jaw worms to 12-foot polar bears, could be two or three times as large. The biological profile - the most complete analysis of the health and location of American wildlife - was drawn by a network of scientists organized by the Nature Conservancy, the nonprofit organization that buys land to protect natural habitat.

ALBANY, N.Y. - They have lived in the mud of the Hudson River probably for hundreds of years, so small that they went undetected by previous explorers armed with only a sieve and a microscope. Even modern scientists, until a couple of years ago, were unaware they could survive in fresh water, although they have inhabited the world's oceans for 500 million years. Exploration has changed. Two state scientists, with the help of crew and students aboard a replica of Henry Hudson's Half Moon, are using cutting-edge technology in the hunt for new species.

MINNEAPOLIS - The U.S. Coast Guard says it must find new ways to keep foreign species out of the Great Lakes, conceding that its regulation of transoceanic ships since 1993 hasn't done the job. In a little-noticed announcement in the Federal Register this month, the Coast Guard confirmed what scientists have been documenting for years: Invasive species can be carried into the Great Lakes in the residual water and mud at the bottom of ships' ballast water...

A LIST OF popular seafood compiled in the latest issue of Audubon magazine contains a surprise for the Chesapeake region. The two edible varieties in least danger of overfishing and decline, according to the nature magazine's report, are rockfish and crabs. Bluefish, another local staple, is close behind them.Since Maryland clamped down on catching rock and crab in the past decade, those species might still be considered under threat. Indeed, enforcement of catch limits on both species continues.

MIAMI - A new study says marine life in North America is deeply troubled, with 82 fish "at risk of extinction" - dying off from excessive fishing, degraded habitat and tainted waters. More than half the species and subspecies, which range from tiny seahorses to titanic whale sharks, swim Florida's oceans, bays and estuaries. The landmark analysis by the American Fisheries Society, a 10,000-member group of scientists and fishery managers, challenges a maxim that even marine biologists largely accepted until witnessing a disturbing drop in global fish populations over the last decades: There may not always be another fish in the sea. "We all grew up thinking the ocean was this infinite resource, that we could all dip into it to feed the world," said George Burgess, a co-author of the study and coordinator of operations at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.

As wildflowers go, Torrey's mountain-mint isn't that striking. The short-stalked plant sports white blooms in late summer, but otherwise would be hard to pick out in a leafy lineup. "You have to really be on a search to find it," says botanist Cris Fleming of Chevy Chase, who recalls spying some several years ago in a rocky outcrop on a Baltimore County farm. Even when they're looking for it, though, scientists have a tough time finding Pycnanthemum torrei these days. It's rare - recorded in fewer than 20 places in the world - and likely to get rarer still, as homes, shopping centers, roads and parking lots gobble up more land in Baltimore's sprawling suburbs.

Maryland Natural Resources officials often downplay the risks of a proposal to put Asian oysters in the Chesapeake Bay by pointing out that the foreign species was brought long ago to other U.S. waters without apparent harm to the environment. "These oysters have been on the West Coast since 1960," Secretary C. Ronald Franks said this week at a hearing before a Senate committee in Annapolis. That statement could be misleading, some scientists say. Although the oyster, Crassostrea ariakensis, was placed in waters off the coast of Oregon in the 1960s, the species never established itself there.

The aggressive, alien fish found breeding unchecked in a Crofton pond last summer did more than introduce Marylanders to an eerily named creature able to survive above the surface and crawl on land. The saga of the northern snakehead, a native of China, also exposed holes in the state's net of regulations for controlling exotic aquatic species that find their way with growing frequency into state waterways. The General Assembly has begun working to mend those gaps. Legislators began discussion yesterday on a bill that would grant the Department of Natural Resources authority to outlaw targeted species, enter private property to get rid of them and charge responsible property owners for the cost of their action.