FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 80, NO. 2 



Black Creek 

 Canal 



Moody Canal 



Mowry Canal 



ATLANTIC OCEAN 



N 



+ 



10 km 



FIGURE 1.— Collection stations in south Biscayne Bay, Fla. 



Hare 1969; Bullock et al. 1971; Burrows 1972; 

 Snieszko 1974). Information concerning parasit- 

 ic diseases in relation to water quality has been 

 obtained in artificial situations such as aquacul- 

 ture facilities rather than the natural environ- 

 ment. According to Hoffman (1976) eutrophica- 

 tion and pollution probably affect helminth 

 parasites as well as the hosts, but no precise 

 studies have been made. Deleterious effects on 

 various marine biota due to manmade pollution 

 have been investigated, among them disease of 

 fishes and Crustacea (O'Connor 1976; Overstreet 

 and Howse 1977; Sindermann 1979). Overstreet 

 and Howse (1977) suggested that poor environ- 

 mental conditions may favor parasitic infesta- 



tion by stressing the host, causing disease and 

 lowering resistance. 



In pioneering literature on fish diseases, gill 

 damage other than parasitic was described as 

 due to exposure (Osburn 1911), industrial pollu- 

 tants (Plehn 1924), and fertilizers (Schaperclaus 

 1954). More recent literature implicates phenols 

 (Reichenbach-Klinke 1965), ammonia (Reichen- 

 bach-Klinke 1966; Smith and Piper 1975), pesti- 

 cides (Lowe 1964; Walsh and Ribelin 1975), and 

 environmental stress, defined as a change from 

 the normal which reduces the chances for survi- 

 val (Snieszko 1974). Damage to the gills in re- 

 sponse to various toxins in the water was reported 

 by Herbert and Shurben (1964), who suggested 



270 



