Hi all,

Our crew was out Tuesday, 13 October 2020. The estuary was stratified with pockets of hypoxic water observed near New Bern at station 30 and near the bend at stations 100 and 120. The fluorescence probe that measures chl-a failed mid-cast at station 140 and all chl-a data upstream of 140 was removed due to meaningless, negative values. A bloom at station 70, however, was indicated by the high near surface DO, observation of brown water color, and clogging of filters back in the lab. The crew observed fish actively dying south of Fairfield Harbor (our station 70) and fish dead on the surface from there to mid-channel north of Slocum Cr. (our station 100). The dominant species in the bloom, the dinoflagellate Gyrodinium instriatum aka Levanderina fissa)  is not known to be toxic. G. instriatum is the most common bloom former in the Neuse during the summer and early fall and hasn’t previously been associated with a fish kill. This fish kill appears to have been ongoing since 30 September.

Best,

Nathan