science fora changing world Fish Health, Fungal Infections, and Pfiesteria: The Role of the U.S. Geological Survey Problem

The increasing incidence of fish-health prob-lems, ranging from small external sores and lesions to large-scale fish kills in the Chesapeake Bay and other Mid-Atlantic estuaries, is of growing concern to natural resource managers and residents of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Fish kills have been reported in North Carolina since the early 1990's. Reports of skin lesions on fish in the summer and fall of 1996 and 1997 in the Pocomoke River, Maryland and other tributaries of Chesapeake Bay stimulated a great deal of public and scientific interest. These skin lesions ranged from small pinpoint hemorrhages to abrasions to deep ulcers. In addition, there were two fish kills, involving primarily Atlantic menhaden, in the Pocomoke River during August 1997. The fis