Editor's Summary

9 June 2005

Red alert

A string of recent reports have claimed that the deaths of groups of dolphins and manatees off the Florida coast have been caused by red tides (toxic algal blooms). It has been hard to verify the true cause of these deaths. But the discovery that algal toxins accumulate in fish and seagrass, food for dolphins and manatees, respectively, suggests that the red tides are indeed to blame.

Brief Communications: Brevetoxicosis:  Red tides and marine mammal mortalities

Unexpected brevetoxin vectors may account for deaths long after or remote from an algal bloom.

Leanne J. Flewelling, Jerome P. Naar, Jay P. Abbott, Daniel G. Baden, Nélio B. Barros, Gregory D. Bossart, Marie-Yasmine D. Bottein, Daniel G. Hammond, Elsa M. Haubold, Cynthia A. Heil, Michael S. Henry, Henry M. Jacocks, Tod A. Leighfield, Richard H. Pierce, Thomas D. Pitchford, Sentiel A. Rommel, Paula S. Scott, Karen A. Steidinger, Earnest W. Truby, Frances M. Van Dolah and Jan H. Landsberg

doi:10.1038/nature435755a

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