Tag Archives: biological toxin

On This Day: Dec. 19, 1987, An “unprecedented mortality” – Tainted Fish Found in Dead Whales on Cape Cod

Contaminated mackerel were found in the stomachs of nine whales that died recently along Cape Cod beaches, a finding that may help explain other mysterious marine fatalities, researchers said today. ”We have what appears to be an unprecedented mortality in marine mammals,” Joseph R. Geraci, a marine pathologist, said at the New England Aquarium here. ”Perhaps not unprecedented in that it occurred, but unprecedented in that we have discovered for the first time a biological toxin that is directly reponsible for the deaths.”  click here to read the story 08:49