I thought you might be interested in the Red tide event at South Padre Island in Texas. I drove 27 miles of beach and in the tidal area the density of dead fish varied from zero/ meter squared to over 200. I'd guess in most places in the intertidal there were about 10 fish/meter. About a 1/3 of the dead things were eels. The most common dead things were fish that fed on plankton. As of Oct. 3 it looked like the event that been going for several days as evidenced by the condition of the fish. Some red drum were dead that were nearly a meter long. I found some needle fish and flounder as well. Apparently Oct 2 was much worse and the toxin was so bad on that day that people had burning eyes as well as a cough. On the 3rd it was still bad and made you cough but it was better than the 2nd. It stayed about the same level through the 5 when I left. I still saw recently dead fish floating in the surface on Oct 3,and 4th suggesting things were still dying. We found one dead coyote that was just above the high tide line that probably died from eating fish. I found one dead grebe but no other seabirds. I did see terns and some gulls scavenging. Apparently there was a red-tide event last year but not as bad as this year. Peter Jenny said that there were no red-tides in the six years or so he has been to South Padre in October until last year.--Dee Boersma boersma@u.washington.edu

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