Sex-changing Chemicals Found in Potomac River
Jan 18, 2007 - Reuters
Chemicals known to change the sexual characteristics of fish and animals have been found in West Virginia tributaries of the Potomac River.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2007-01-18T042537Z_01_N17386483_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-POTOMAC.xml
DNR Officials Still Looking for Answers to Fish Questions
By Don Kesner, Hampshire Review - December 28, 2006
ROMNEY - The telling of fish stories has been a standard tongue-in-cheek kind of joke for many years, but fish biologists and sientists aren't laughting at some of the latest fish data.
Stories fo make fish experiencing sex changes may seem off-the-wall and silly, but according to local fish biologist Jim hedrick, it's not all jokes.
It's also not all true.
"Actually, the sex of the fish does not change," said Hedrick. "And I've never know a male fish to produce eggs."
But, he said, that some male fsh have been known to produce a protein that is the same protein used by females for egg production. http://www.hampshirereview.com
Fish Sex Changes Might Be Caused by Human Waste
By John McCoy - Woods and Waters Sunday Gazette-Mail - December 17, 2006
Ever since they discovered that male South Branch smallmouth bass had started developing female characteristics, scientists have been scratching their heads trying to figure out why.
A recent University of Colorado study might solve at least part of the mystery.
David Norris, who teaches integrative physiology at the school, has found that even low concentrations of effluent from wastewater treatment plants have the ability to change male fish into females.
Norris’ research revealed that so-called “endocrine disrupters” — chemicals from pharmaceuticals and personal-care products — apparently survive current treatment processes and are pumped almost unchanged into the ecosystem.
He believes the chemicals come from natural human hormones as well as hormones from birth-control products. “What we see in the fish downstream is as if they’re taking birth-control pills,” he told interviewers for the Scripps-Howard News Service. http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Woods+&+Waters/2006121633?pt=10
More Dead Fish Found in Va. River
By Sue Lindsey (Associated Press Writer) Seattle Post-intelligencer - December 12,2006
ROANOKE, Va. -- Scientists baffled by massive springtime fish kills on the Shenandoah River over several years now have additional confusing information: several hundred dead fish in December.
An environmentalist counted at least 300 dead northern hogsuckers on a 10-mile stretch of the main branch of the Shenandoah in Clarke and Warren counties last week, said Don Kain, a state Department of Environmental Quality biologist. An accurate count was impossible because many had sunk the bottom, DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden said.
About a dozen dead fish have been found this week, but they were of different species and in different parts of the river. Most of them were sunfish except for one smallmouth bass, Kain said. Half were found on the North Fork of the Shenandoah and half on the South Fork.
"That's been the toughest thing about this fish kill," Kain said. "There really aren't any concerted patterns."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501AP_Shenandoah_Fish_Kill.html
|
