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It is a nasty critter, and an elusive one. Sometimes plant, sometimes animal, sometimes benign and sometimes capable of killing millions of fish, the microbe known as pfiesteria is all of these things.
And in its spare time, it is the spark that ignited a controversy in the ranks of scientific research.
Now a new study indicates that N.C. State University scientist JoAnn Burkholder was on solid ground when she said a decade ago that pfiesteria was the culprit that caused massive fish kills and led to the closing of fishing grounds in both North Carolina’s coastal estuaries and Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay.
It took nine years, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced recently that, indeed, two species of pfiesteria can transform themselves from harmless microbes to “toxic organisms that can cause estaurine fish kills.”
Back in the 1990s when Burkholder’s research at N.C. State led to the same conclusion, her findings were often greeted with less than ringing applause. Farmers and fishermen, competing scientists and others joined forces to denounce her work. Part of Burkholder’s research indicated that pollution, much of it from agricultural sources, could trigger the deadly transmogrification of the otherwise placid pfiesteria from harmless bug to mass fish killer.
Then there were signs that this hard-to-spell-and-pronounce scientific curiosity could not only could kill fish but could harm humans as well.
Burkholder blazed an important scientific trail at N.C. State. Those who followed her lead for much of the last decade have also done important work.
Pfiesteria has not appeared in local waterways in recent years. Some believe that Hurricane Floyd’s 1999 flood flushed it from state waters.
Perhaps. But, thanks to scientists who did not give up their important quest for knowledge, if the critter comes back, we’ll have a better idea of what we’re up against. Scientists know more than they used to and that’s always a good thing.