Status of Perkinsus marinus in Galveston Bay, Texas: Results of the DermoWatch program
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DermoWatch is a web site (www.blueblee.com/dermo), a monitoring program and an online community for the management of the oyster parasite, Perkinsus marinus. The web site contains an embedded model, which calculates a time for the critical level of disease from an initial weighted incidence of disease and water temperature and salinity. Six public reefs and three private leases in Galveston Bay have been sampled monthly since December 1998. The web site displays the most recent data from each site on the home page and archives all data, such that an historical record is maintained. Historical data show high levels of disease during the drought years of 1999 and 2000. With the cessation of the drought in 2001 and heavy rains associated with tropical storm Allison in June of 2001, disease levels throughout the Bay have been depressed