Don't Drink the Water was a song written by Dave Mathews in the late 90's. Well don't drink it, don't swim in it, don't fish in it, and especially don't bathe in it. For Biology 108's Book report I read a book by Rodney Barker, "And the Waters Turned to Blood". This book details the latest biological bomb and it is based in our own North Carolina's tranquil waters microorganism in question: Pfiesteria piscicida, the "cell from hell", one-celled creature called a dinoflagellate. This is an aquatic microorganism that causes massive fish kills and has started to effect humans. Human sufferers exhibit symptoms similar to Alzheimer's or multiple sclerosis. The book starts out sounding like a warped X-Files episode. In its introduction we learn of the foul fortunes of a family that took a vacation in the mountains of North Carolina and they bring back a strange sickness that controls their bodies and shoots excruciating pain throughout their limbs. No doctor, for many years can diagnose their symptoms. .
Then, we start to follow Dr. Joann Burkholder, she is an aquatic botany professor that is taken in by North Carolina's Landscape and gets a teaching position at North Carolina State University. The whole thing is a cross between science fiction thriller and conspiracy theory as she comes in to the spot light for the first two thirds of the book. Starting with some unexplained fish kills in the tanks of North Carolina State veterinary school. Unable to solve the mystery themselves, the fish biologist called on a young North Carolina State aquatic botany professor, Dr. Joann Burkholder. When she puts some of the aquarium water under a microscope, she found that it was thick with dinoflagellates. At first, though, it was assumed that these organisms just thrived in water full of dead fish. No one suspected that these dinoflagellates were the actual killers. That was because fish-killing activity had never been observed before in dinoflagellates.
