Between April 23 and April 30, bloom events were recorded from the Chesapeake and Coastal Bays watersheds with the mahogany tide dinoflagellates Prorocentrum minimum, Karlodinium micrum and a cyanophyte (blue-green alga) Lyngbya. Several bloom events were in association with fish kill sites investigated by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). Routine water quality monitoring of the Coastal Bays by Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) also produced samples with low to moderate concentrations of the potentially toxic dinoflagellate Dinophysis acuminata. Warming temperatures and much needed rains have arrived this spring. Runoff from the recent storm events, however, will deliver a nutrient pulse to the Bays and their tributaries that will likely feed additional algal blooms throughout the spring season.

Prorocentrum minimum
Chesapeake Bay:
Port Tobacco River - On April 18 a report was filed with MDE regarding a fish kill and discolored water on the Port Tobacco River in Charles County. The investigation found 17 dead gizzard shad. A water sample contained bloom levels of P. minimum with 18,000 cells/ml.