Pfiesteria toxin identified

After nearly a decade of work, researchers have discovered a toxin produced by the dinoflagellate Pfiesteria piscicida.

Something in the water killed billions of fish in eastern U.S. estuaries throughout the 1990s. When a group of scientists blamed the kills on blooms of the dinoflagellate Pfiesteria piscicida, they wrote the beginning to a detective story that would spawn bitter debate over the next 15 years.