Male Bass in Potomac Producing Eggs - but we don't

[MaryH]

have an environmental problem do we?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33850-2004Oct14?language=printer

The South Branch of the Potomac River is as clear as bottled water here, where it rolls over a bed of smooth stones about 230 miles upstream from Washington. But there is a mystery beneath this glassy surface.

Many of the river's male bass are producing eggs.

Scientists believe this inversion of nature is being caused by pollution in the water. But they say the exact culprit is still unknown: It might be chicken estrogen left over in poultry manure, or perhaps human hormones dumped in the river with processed sewage. Chances are, it is not something that federal and state inspectors regularly test for in local waters.

The discovery has made the South Branch the latest example of an emerging national problem: Hormones, drugs and other man-made pollutants appear to be interfering with the chemical signals that make fish grow and reproduce.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Wonderful *sigh*

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. So more eggs....

mean more fish, which mean overcrowding in the river, and fish will begin to die from lack of oxygen, causing even more problems.

I f&^king hate these selfish assholes.
FSC

[EstimatedProphet]

5. No, it's unfortunately worse than that-

Males producing eggs don't produce functional eggs typically, and they also don't produce sperm. So within a few generations, there's no more fish.

[fudge stripe cookays]

9. Thanks EP.

That would have occurred to unscientific me if I'd thought about it a little harder.

Still screwed up. And we can thank our friends in large corporations (and their toadies in government) for getting us here.

FSC

[kslib]

3. I remember

when I was little, and we used to be able to fish in local lakes and rivers and eat what we caught. My dad also used to hunt one deer a year and that would be our meat for the winter (very Little House on the Prairie!). Now, he won't shoot any deer (he only hunts for food, not sport) because they have weird diseases, even one that the Fish and Game officer told dad was like "mad cow for deer". He still fishes, but maybe we shouldn't eat them either! Yuck!

:scared:

[MisterP]

15. diseases are spreading in Minn. and Wis. from game being

brought over from infested areas so thrill-hunters can have their canned hunts.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. This is going on all over the US

When I was out west the carp in Lake Mead were showing signs of hormone reaction too, likely because of poor sewage treatment from Las Vegas. Let hormones loose in the water, and they will stay there to be taken up in low doses by anyone who has frequent contact with the water-which is everything.
http://cluster3.biosci.utexas.edu/faculty/lizard/public/SexRevEffects.pdf"> Here is a paper that discusses similar problems in Florida's Lake Apopka turtle and alligator populations:

[Southpaw Bookworm]

6. That's some scary sh!t

I was actually on my way over here to post this article. If right now male fish are producing eggs, what sort of environmental horrors are we going to see a few years from now. It's interesting that the article discusses the role of artificial hormones being discharged into water: One of Rachel Carson's main points in Silent Spring was about the synthetic female hormones used in pesticides -- no one knew what kind of havoc they would wreak, particularly on women, whose higher percentage of fat (which stores these chemical cocktails) makes them more susceptible to problems and mutations.

[IrateCitizen]

7. I used to fish this very stretch as a kid while visiting my grandmother...

My father grew up in Moorefield, and my grandmother lived there. I remember it as being a beautiful creek. My cousins and I would go down with our fishing poles and take our shoes off and just wade into it barefoot. On a few occasions, we took canoe trips down through it. My father and uncle would talk of how they used to freelance as fly fishing guides down through. EXCELLENT smallmouth bass fishing -- you could see them all over the place through the clear water....

About 10-12 years ago, Wampler Foods set up a huge operation in Moorefield. They have chicken processing plants galore. The smell is atrocious. I wouldn't doubt for a second that the hormones used in the chicken has something to do with this.

But yeah, there's no problem with the environment. Look -- another run of "Survivor" is on.... :argh:

[WoodrowFan]

8. is this that "homosexual agenda"?

is this that "homosexual agenda" I keep hearing the RW blather about????

[hatrack]

10. Certainly nothing worth bringing up in presidential debates!

I mean, really, who wants to hear the candidates discuss trivial things like this when they can talk about God and their wives? :mad:

[Gyre]

11. Gaea

is getting ready to throw us the fuck down. And murrika and roosia should be the first to go.

Gyre

[yellowcanine]

12. Snakeheads involved? I see two alternate explanations.

1st - this is a strategy the bass have developed to deal with the menace of the snakeheads. If males produce eggs there will be more baby bass and even if the snakeheads eat a few there will still be some bass left.

2nd - OTOH this may actually be a nefarius strategy on the part of the snakeheads themselves. The snakeheads are excreting estrogen to "feminize" the male bass and turn them all into gays, thus destroying bass marriage (one daddy bass, one mommy bass) as we know it and the snakeheads will eventually take over as the bass society disintegrates.

[hatrack]

13. ROFLMAO!!!

Thanks, Yellowcanine - this is the funniest post I've read this morning! :hi:

Oh, forgot to mention - the snakeheads are from CHINA - a COMMUNIST country! Coincidence? I think not!!

[Kanary]

14. Then, add to that....... the residue of "anti-depressants" in the water.

Most of which goes right through all the filtering systems.

We're drinking some wonderful liquids.

:mad:

Kanary