Since man first started using his hands to make tools and weapons, he has always struggled to be more powerful and have better weapons than his enemies. Today is no different. Perhaps one of the newest, most publicly known type of weapon being created and tested is biological warfare. This type of warfare is believed to be the best and most deadly of all weapons, however, the big question is, how safe is it, and what are its effects on the environment? In James Powlik’s Sea Change, the author clearly states that biological warfare is not safe and that it is harmful to the environment. Three good examples of this are: the Pfiesteria in Powlik’s novel, its effects on humans, and its effects on animals.
Firstly, just by taking a look at the Pfiesteria will show just how dangerous it really is. Although the Pfiesteria in Powlik’s novel is a semi-fictitious organism, there are other biological weapons similar to it. The Pfiesteria is described as follows:
Taxonomic genus of dinoflagellate first described in the early 1990’s and found in the Gulf Stream waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Pfiesteria prefers warm, brackish conditions and has been linked to seasonal fish kills in nutrient-laden estuaries of the U.S. mid-Atlantic states. It consumes other algae, sometimes using the chloroplasts for photosynthesis. The organism has been described as having up to 24 distinct life stages and produces at least two toxins that act offensively rather than as a passive deterrent. One, a water-soluble neurotoxin, is used to stun prey, while a second, fat-soluble toxin ulcerates and destroys tissue. (Powlik, 478)
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This is a description of the real Pfiesteria, but the Pfiesteria in Sea Change is not all that different from it. The only difference is the semi-fictitious Pfiesteria can harm humans and animals larger than cod-size fish, and can survive in the Pacific Ocean near Canada. On top of this, both types of Pfiesteria can form a protective layer called a cyst when the conditions they are living in at the time are no longer ideal. This means that they go into a type of ‘hibernation’ until the conditions are livable. They can ‘hibernate’ in this state for more than 20 years. This can obviously be a problem because people might think that it has been destroyed when in fact it is still alive and may come out of its cyst many years later when the conditions are right and wreak havoc all over again. An example of what happens when the Pfiesteria comes out of its cyst as told by Brock Garner, the main character in Powlik’s novel:
The cysts are dormant. From there, Pfiesteria grows through twenty-three more life stages as it matures. As far as anyone has determined, each phase develops a more advanced morphology, a different feeding strategy, and more lethal chemical defenses. This bug has got one of the most complicated life cycles ever described. (Powlik, 200)
This second description of Pfiesteria shows just how hazardous it really is.
Secondly, the effects Pfiesteria has on humans can be very disastrous. In Powlik’s novel, all humans that were exposed to it, died an excruciating death.
With a forced effort, Peters got his arm to respond. The limb, hung with shredded neoprene and flesh, twitched and jerked spasmodically as he clutched it to his side and brought it up to his face. His fingers touched the point where his right eye should have been, coming away with jellied viscera. He could not yet know it, but he would soon lose sight in both eyes as the blood vessels there ruptured and the extent of the nerve damage revealed itself. Losing consciousness, struggling to draw air across the shredded lining of his lungs, Peters looked back at the tree line, trying to guess exactly where he was. (Powlik, 12)
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This example of death from Pfiesteria shows that it will kill anything it comes in contact with, and will do it mercilessly. Excessive vomiting, diarrhea, loss of flesh, ‘burning’ feeling of flesh, inability to breathe, shredding of interior organs, and bleeding from mouth, nose, ears, and corners of eyes, are just a few of the symptoms humans sometimes have to go through be fore dying when exposed to Pfiesteria.
The smell of vomit overwhelmed him. He saw Lindsay cowering against the far end of the tent, covering her mouth and nose with her hands. He saw little Caitlin, curled up in a fetal position in her sleeping bag, clutching her stomach and wailing between convulsions. Karen was attempting to wipe Caitlin’s face with the towel, but Caitlin vomited relentlessly onto the weather-proof floor of the tent. Dark green and grainy, the fluid oozed thickly downslope into the corner. Fulton smelled feces and realized that the violent reaction was not limited to one end of his little girl. Something was turning his daughter inside out. (Powlik, 27)
This is yet another example of the symptoms experienced by humans after being exposed to Pfiesteria.
Finally, by taking a look at the effects Pfiesteria has on animals should prove that biological warfare is not a safe weapon.
Struggling against the current, he stood in the shallow water and saw the bloated carcass of a sea lion, a large male with most of side eaten away. Behind it was another. And another. Climbing out of the water, fear rising in concert with his disbelief, Junkers counted twenty-two bodies, including three sea otters, Enhydra lutris. Every one of them was dead, their wounds no longer bleeding. He wondered if they had gotten tangled in a drift net or some other abandoned fishing gear. But there was no sign of the net, and the wounds were too indistinct to be lacerations. They looked like ulcerated bruises, emerging through the wall of the belly and throat of the sea lion and inflaming the animal’s face. (Powlik, 41)
This description of the sea lions goes to show what could happen to the animal life if a biological weapon were to ever be used. Not only would the weapon successfully kill the targeted humans, it would also kill all of the marine life and most of the land animals. The following is another example of what could happen to the animals if biological warfare was ever used:
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Except for some scarring around the mouth and blowhole, the heads of the animals were intact, at least externally. Behind the pectoral fins, however, their digestive tracts had been ruptured by some highly corrosive substance-the fat-soluble toxins of the mutated Pfiesteria. The lungs, stomach, and intestines could no longer be identified, and huge chunks of blubber had been sloughed completely from the skeleton. Past the dorsal fin, little more than the vertebral column and the tail fluke remained…The microscopic dinoflagellate had been ingested as a predator, not prey, taken in through the whale’s mouth and swallowed before the host even detected its presence. (Powlik, 248)
This description of the whales proves that Pfiesteria becomes more lethal as it grows. This is a problem because it is very hard to stop Pfiesteria and it never stops reproducing, increasing in mass, and becoming more and more lethal.
Thus, biological warfare is obviously not a safe weapon and should not be used as one by anyone. In Sea Change by James Powlik, the author clearly shows through his characters and plot, that biological warfare is one of the worst weapons that could be used by anyone, even worse than nuclear warfare. As mentioned before, Pfiesteria is hard to eliminate and in Powlik’s novel, Garner and the rest of the crew all thought they had destroyed the Pfiesteria. Unfortunately they were wrong. Powlik shows through his epilogue in Sea Change, that even though the Pfiesteria was destroyed, there were still dormant cysts in the water, and when the bird lands in the shallow water to get a drink, the cysts cling to her. Now they can go wherever the bird goes. Once the bird lands in warm enough water, where the conditions are right, the Pfiesteria cysts will start their life cycle over, and the killing will begin all over again.
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