Pfiesteria Crossing Dark Water

What if. . . What if you were a dedicated, hard-working family doctor . . . and then one day, your neighbors began to tell you they'd "gotten sick" while swimming or fishing in the local river? What if you examined them—and discovered they were right? What if you quickly sounded the alert . . . but the public health authorities refused to admit that the illness existed, or that it was being caused by a pollution-linked biological invader that had crept into the nearby watershed? Question: If you were the local "family doc," what would you do? This book tells the gripping story of a medical doctor who was forced to answer these very questions.

What if. . . What if you were a dedicated, hard-working family doctor . . . and then one day, your neighbors began to tell you they'd "gotten sick" while swimming or fishing in the local river? What if you examined them—and discovered they were right? What if you quickly sounded the alert . . . but the public health authorities refused to admit that the illness existed, or that it was being caused by a pollution-linked biological invader that had crept into the nearby watershed? Question: If you were the local "family doc," what would you do? This book tells the gripping story of a medical doctor who was forced to answer these very questions. Pfiesteria: Crossing Dark Water describes what happened when Ritchie Shoemaker, M.D.—a 45-year-old practicing physician in Pocomoke City, Maryland—discovered that people were being made sick by the "pfiesteria blooms" that began occurring in the Chesapeake Bay watershed in 1997 . . . and that are now threatening other U.S. watersheds as well. For Dr. Shoemaker, the year that followed his discovery was marked by continuing controversy and political struggle.