more fishy problems

[Guest guest]

more male fish found wearin high heels....

 

Male Fish Growing Eggs Found in Potomac

 

Tue Dec 21, 8:40 AM ET Science - AP

 

 

 

SHARPSBURG, Md. - Male fish that are growing eggs have been found in the Potomac

River near Sharpsburg, a sign that a little-understood type of pollution is

spreading downstream from West Virginia, a federal scientist says.

 

 

 

The so-called intersex abnormality may be caused by pollutants from sewage

plants, feedlots and factories that can interfere with animals' hormone systems,

The Washington Post reported Sunday.

 

 

Nine male smallmouth bass taken from the Potomac near Sharpsburg, about 60 miles

upstream from Washington, were found to have developed eggs inside their sex

organs, said Vicki S. Blazer, a scientist overseeing the research for the U.S.

Geological Survey (news - web sites).

 

 

Authorities say the problems are likely related to a class of pollutants called

endocrine disruptors, which short-circuit animals' natural systems of hormone

chemical messages.

 

 

Officials are awaiting the results of water-quality testing that might point to

a specific chemical behind the fish problems, Blazer said.

 

 

" It certainly indicates something's going on, " Blazer said of the new findings

in Maryland. " But what, we don't know. "

 

 

The Potomac River is the main source of drinking water for the Washington

metropolitan area and many upstream communities. It provides about 75 percent of

the water supply to the 3.6 million residents of Washington and its Maryland and

Virginia suburbs.

 

 

Blazer, who works at a federal fish lab in Leetown, W.Va., said she found the

latest abnormalities last week while examining tissues from fish taken from the

river near Sharpsburg.

 

 

The same symptoms had previously been found about 170 miles upstream, in the

South Branch of the Potomac in Hardy County, W.Va. Blazer and other scientists

discovered the problem there last year while investigating a rash of mass fish

deaths.

 

 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service researchers are seeking money for a much larger

study across the Potomac watershed.

 

 

Endocrine disruptors comprise a vast universe of pollutants capable of driving a

hormone system haywire. Some are hormones themselves — such as human estrogen

from women taking birth-control pills or animal hormones washed downstream with

manure — that can pass through sewage plants untouched.

 

 

In Hardy County, officials were especially concerned about chicken waste from

poultry farms.

 

 

Other endocrine disruptors are hormone " mimics " — industrial chemicals or

factory byproducts which confuse the body because they are chemically similar to

natural hormones.

 

 

These pollutants are often found in very low concentrations, so until recently

no equipment could detect them. But the first nationwide survey, in 1999 and

2000, found hormones in about 37 percent of streams tested.

 

 

Many scientists are concerned that people, as well as other animals, might be

affected. " It's not good news that there's something that feminizes male fish in

your water, " said Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources

Defense Council.

 

 

But the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) has not set standards

for many of these pollutants. Because of this, many drinking-water plants make

no special efforts to remove them.

 

 

Authorities in West Virginia are investigating whether there is a link to higher

rates of certain cancers in people there.

 

 

 

 

 

A recent survey of cancer in Hardy County, where some residents get drinking

water from the South Branch, found rates of cancer of the liver, gallbladder,

ovaries and uterus that were higher than the state average. All four cancers can

in some cases grow faster in the presence of estrogen or chemicals that mimic

it, cancer experts said.

 

" It is at least theoretically possible that those two concepts are worth

thinking about side-by-side, " said Alan Ducatman, chairman of the Department of

Community Medicine at West Virginia University.