o eliminate any threat to the public's 

 health, the N.C. Division of Shellfish 

 Sanitation recommended that the N.C. 

 Division of Marine Fisheries ban the 

 harvest of shellfish along a 200-mile 

 stretch of the Tar Heel coast until 

 counts of the organisms dropped. 



at Tester, a biologist at the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service in Beaufort, 

 says counts of the organisms ran as 

 high as 20 million per liter. Immediate 

 offshore areas and inlets— Beaufort, 

 Bogue, Bear and New River— had the 

 most organisms. 



ounts must drop below 5,000 cells 

 per liter before state officials will con- 

 sider reopening waters. After the 

 counts drop, officials must wait a few 

 weeks to reopen waters so that 

 shellfish can purge themselves of the 

 toxin. 



n mid-December, seven miles of water 

 were reopened between Avon and 

 Brooks Point. 



ut Tester says counts in the Beaufort 

 area were still high in December— 

 100,000 organisms per liter. By the 

 first of January, counts had dropped 

 below 50,000 organisms per liter in 

 most areas, and scientists hoped the 

 new year's surge of cold weather 

 would end the tide's visit. 



cientists are baffled by the red tide's 

 long stay. Sea Grant researcher Hans 

 Paerl says warm waters, sunny days 

 and light onshore winds have caused 

 the tide to linger. 



nd those conditions may have con- 

 tributed to the tide's initial onslaught. 

 But there are differing opinions among 

 scientists about just why the Tar Heel 

 coast was invaded. 



ester believes the tide hitched a ride 

 on the northbound Gulf Stream. She 

 points to red tide breakout in Naples, 

 Fla., on Aug. 24. 



i i e believe that the Gulf Stream 

 was 'seeded' with the red tide 

 organisms then," she says. 



orty-eight days later the tide was en- 

 croaching on North Carolina's 

 coastline. Tester says that the travel 

 time between Naples and North 

 Carolina in the Gulf Stream would be 

 40 to 60 days. 



oth Tester and Paerl also point to 

 the unique configuration of the Gulf 

 Stream prior to the red tide's ap- 

 pearance. Satellite infrared 

 photographs revealed that an eddy of 

 the warm-water current veered directly 

 into Cape Lookout. 



he close proximity of the Gulf 

 Stream plus a gentle onshore wind may 

 have pushed the red tide ashore, scien- 

 tists say. 



nd the winds also may have caused 

 localized upwellings of natural ocean 

 nutrients that feed the red tide 

 organisms, Paerl says. 



aerl does not believe that this red 

 tide outbreak was linked to pollution. 

 But Kamykowski says other outbreaks 

 of different red tide organisms may be 

 connected to pollution problems. 



aerl says the red tide not only 

 hitched a ride. It brought a friend— a 

 marine blue-green algae also typically 

 found in subtropical waters. 



n fact, Paerl says the slicks of non- 

 toxic blue-green algae were often 

 mistaken for red tide. And its ap- 

 pearance supports the theory that the 



Crashing waves released toxins in the air 

 that sent beachcombers back into their 

 cottages 



red tide was an "imported" organism. 



ut Kamykowski says there are at 

 least two other reasons why the red 

 tide may have occurred. 



he organisms could have already 

 been present in offshore sediments in a 

 seedlike cyst form. The cysts were 

 possibly planted during a previous red 

 tide that either no one noticed or no 

 one identified, he says. 



he wind, wave and weather condi- 

 tions this fall may have simply jolted 

 the cysts into growth. 



r it is possible, Kamykowski says, 

 that the species is a "natural part of 

 our marine community'— one that has 

 gone undetected. 



ut whatever the cause, the main 

 questions on the minds of 

 shellfishermen and beachcombers are 

 how long will the tide stay and will it 

 come back? 



cientists simply don't know the 

 answers. Kamykowski says that very 

 little is known about the life history of 

 this organism. 



ut state officials are hoping that a 

 new study will find some answers. The 

 Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine Study 

 Technical Committee approved a 

 $25,000 federal-state grant to study 

 whether the tide is likely to return. 



he study will determine whether the 

 dinoflagellate is forming cysts that are 

 likely to survive through the winter. If 

 the cysts survive, they could threaten 

 the state's waters again next year. 



ut shellfishermen hope that's not the 

 case. They've had enough of the tide 

 called red. 



