Evening star., 1947-08-08
Stars, Men and Atoms
Poison Gas Organism
Blamed for Fish Red Tide
Scientists Identify Tiny Animal
Causing Florida Outbreak,
By Thomas r. Henry

BY Thomas II. Henry
a poison -secreting gas-gensrating animal
less than = thousandth of an inch long which
lives IN the incredible abundance Of more than
sixty millions to quart of sea water Is the
red tide" which is covering West Florida
beaches with dead Ash and attacking peopl.
with poison gas when the wind Ia toward the
shore.
This Is the diagnosis Of Fish and Wild Life
Adminstra tion >experts. The responsible or
ganism hss been definitely identified as dinofs-
getta gymnodivium. a protozoan or one-celled
animal. It's just microscopic, naked bit of
protoplasm. roughly circular in shape with two
swimming arms, which forms a normal part
Of the so-called ''plankton," the vast horde of
unicellulsr animals and plants which fills the
oceans and forms the food supply of larger
forms. which In turn are eaten by fishes.
Every now and then. for some reason Of
which there Is no understanding, there L. an
enormous increase in the numbers of plankton
Usually some organism gets a head start and
increases in numbers much more rapidly than
all the others. In this case 1t happened to be
the poisonous gymnodivium.
Seek to Isolate Poison.
Efforts to isolate and identify the particular
poison 1t secretes now are being made by chem
lists Of the Pure Food and Drug Administration
This toxin they say. almost ,nquestionably IL
spread through the water-possibly az q hy-
product Of the metabolism of the protozoans
and possibly as a decomposition product OF the
countless billions of them which are dying at
all times.
The red tide" has been recorded In various
parts Of the world for the past century but the
Florida outbreak appears to be the worst vet
observed. The creatures are so numerous that
they have made the water gelatinous
The particular rust-red orga anism may be Q
hitherto unrecorded variety. It Is closely re-
lated to . similar protozoan which poiscns
nlussels and sometimes CLAIMS on the Pacific
Coast and has caused the deaths of several
people.
Fish placed in tank filled with the n,in,,te
creatures soon died. They also died when all
the gymnodiviums were removed from ths
water indicating that the toxin lis not confined
to their bodies Neither are the hsh killed BY
the depletion Of oxygen in the waters. Meas-
urements have shown that this remains about
normal.
Samples Of Gas Sought.
Most curious of all is the odorless, highly ir-
ritating gas which arises from the water It
becomes quite obnoxious and possibly danger
Gus. when the wind is blowing toward the
shore. Efforts are being made to obtain sam
pies Of this for analysis. 1t may turn out to
be kind of mildly toxic gas hitherto unknown
The red tide"-more properly rust tide
appears concentrated on the Gulf Coast Of
Florida between Charlotte Harbor and Tampa
Bay. Previous phenomena OF this sort have
lasted only few days and have not recurred.
This one already has repeated itself three times
in the past seven months
Presumably great and sudden increases in
numbers OF plankton are due to Increase in
the available food supply. composed mostly Of
minerals There is no demonstrable increase
of this sort In the Gulf waters. Until the
cause Of the proliferation of the red hagellates
can be found there Is little that can be dons
about 1t.