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Katie Pitz snorkeling to collect specimens of dead coral rubble.

Katie Pitz snorkeling to collect specimens of dead coral rubble.
Katie Pitz snorkeling to collect specimens of dead coral rubble.
Katie Pitz snorkeling to collect specimens of dead coral rubble.
Katie Pitz snorkeling to collect specimens of dead coral rubble.
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Moulton, Melissa
Katie Pitz snorkeling to collect specimens of dead coral rubble.
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01/16/2013
graphics/Oceanus_online/Pitz/P1160095_B.jpg
Caption from Oceanus magazine, Vol. 51, No. 2, pg. 62:
MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Katie Pitz is on the hunt for invisible yet dangerous organisms in the tropical ocean. She is conducting research on a microscopic phytoplankton that produce toxins that cause Ciguatera Fish Poisoning, a food-borne illness that harms thousands of people each year.
Caption from Oceanus online: Katie Pitz is on the hunt for invisible yet dangerous organisms in the tropical ocean. Pitz, a graduate student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, is conducting research on a microscopic phytoplankton that produces toxins that cause Ciguatera Fish Poisoning, a food-borne illness that harms thousands of people each year.
Image Of the Day caption:
MIT-WHOI Joint Program student Katie Pitz is on the hunt for invisible, but dangerous organisms in the tropical ocean. She is conducting research on a microscopic phytoplankton that produce toxins behind ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP), a food-borne illness that sickens thousands of people each year. Pitz collects specimens of coral rubble that harbor the toxic phytoplankton Gambierdiscus. The toxins move up the food chain when fish that eat the phytoplankton are eaten by people. In an effort to combat CFP, he is identifying different Gambierdiscus species and learning how communities of the organism change over time and in different locations.
Photo by Melissa Moulton
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/trouble-in-the-tropics
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