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Nature 418, 925-926 (29 August 2002) | doi:10.1038/418925a
Marine biology: Unveiling an ocean phantom
Vera L. Trainer
Abstract
Certain episodes of mass fish mortality in coastal waters off the eastern United States have been ascribed to a planktonic organism called Pfiesteria. There are now fresh clues to how these fish are killed.
In James Powlik's novel Sea Change1, a colony of mutant cells called Pfiesteria grows into a carpet-like monster stretching over several square miles of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a body of water separating the west coast of the United States and Canada. Its slow movement south threatens the residents of Seattle with a nightmarish fate — death following inhalation or ingestion of a toxin produced by the microbes.
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