One of the toxic algae involved in a 2002 bloom that killed thousands of fish along Auckland's east coast has been found to be new to science, and capable of causing cell-death in marine organisms.
Its formal description as karenia concordia - named for its "droop-nosed" appearance, like the supersonic aircraft,
under a microscope - will be published in the international journal Phycologia.
Its identification in the international journal was by senior National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research scientist Hoe Chang, and his colleague Ken Ryan, from Victoria University, who also found it produced toxins capable of killing cells.
When the Hauraki Gulf suffered a series of algal blooms in 2002, some swimmers reported numb lips.
On October 11, 2002, tens of thousands of fish were reported dead on Orewa beach.
About 8500 paua at a marine farm at Kennedys Bay on the eastern Coromandel Peninsula were reported killed, even though seawater fed into the land-based aquaculture facility was pre-filtered to remove algal cells.
Water samples collected between October 9 and 16 from several areas around Orewa, Waiwera, north of Waiheke Island and also at Kennedys Bay outside the Gulf, showed the presence of several species of algae, karenia and gymnodinium, with karenia mikimotoi the dominant species.
There were also small numbers of karenia brevisulcata, plus gymnodinium pulchellum, and an apparently new species.
Karenia brevisulcata was in 1998 known as "the Wellington Harbour toxin" because it made kills of fish, shellfish, sponges, and seaweeds.
Dr Chang said the identification of the latest new species added to the growing list of harmful marine microalgae found in New Zealand, and the number of species associated with human health risks and environmental problems, would continue to grow as more species were discovered.
- NZPA
Herald Feature: Conservation and Environment
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