ABSTRACT
Each group pursued various hypotheses as specimens were dissected and examined. News media representatives pushed daily for answers; tourists gathered in subdued clusters around dead animals on the beaches. After all the results of the various analyses-pathological, microbiological, and chemical - were completed, a tentative diagnosis was made and a final report prepared. 22 Deaths during the outbreak period seemed associated with high tissue levels of an algal biotoxin (brevetoxin) ingested with food. Weakened animals seemed less resistant to the microbial infections that were the immediate causes of death in most cases. Pathological effects may have been exacerbated also by exposure to industrial pollutants, which could create physiological stress and reduce immunocompetence. (Dolphins also died in large numbersestimated to be in excess of 200-in 1990 in the Gulf of Mexico).
