Mortality of Fishes and Shellfishes to Harmful Algal Blooms

Mortality of several species of fish and shellfish exposed to Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) caused by Cochlodinium polykrikoides, Heterosigam akashiwo, Alexandrium tamarense, Eutreptiella gymnastica, Heterocapsa triquetra and Prorocentrum micans was studied. When fish were exposed to a cell density of 8,000 cells $mL^{-1}$ in C. polykrikoides, $35\%$ of flatfish and darkbanded rockfish died within 48 hrs. However, jacopever rockfish had mortality of higher than $85\%$. Rock bream, filefish and red sea bream showed $100\%$ mortality within 10 hrs with an exposure cell density of 8,000 cells $mL^{-1}$. The rest of HABs except for C. polykrikoides showed that there was no fish and shellfish death throughout the 48 hrs even in the maximum cell density of 100,000 cells $mL^{-1}$ These results imply that C. polykrikoides can have a serious impact on fish mortality and it is regarded as an ichthyotoxic dinoflagellate. The fish death may be attributed to anoxia caused by a combination of the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and polysaccharide from C. polykrikoides during blooms.