This toxin results in the fish developing bleeding lesions, and their skin flakes off in the water. The dinoflagellates then eat the blood and flakes of tissue while the affected fish die.[32] Fish kills by this dinoflagellate are common, and they may also have been responsible for kills in the past which were thought to have had other causes.[32] Kills like these can be viewed as natural mechanisms for regulating the population of exceptionally abundant fish.