[Pharmwaste] "Intersex" male bass found throughout protected Northeast US waters

Khan, Usman usman.khan at amecfw.com
Fri Dec 18 11:34:08 EST 2015


Hi Allen,

The following study might be of interest:

http://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7007-12-1

Thanks

From: Gilliam, Allen [mailto:GILLIAM at adeq.state.ar.us]
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 6:51 AM
To: 'Tenace, Laurie' <Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us>; 'pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us' <pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us>
Subject: RE: [Pharmwaste] "Intersex" male bass found throughout protected Northeast US waters

Thanks Laurie, interesting story once again.

(c'mon Laurie!! Almost 80°F on Christmas day and 82 the next?)

Does anyone "out there" know if there's been any studies conducted demonstrating a decrease in affected fishes' population? Seems we've beat the intersexing story into acceptation so the next step would be to present the potential outcome showing downward population trends = future extinction? That type of report should raise some political hackles and hopefully some serious legislation...

Look how long it took for global warming to be (almost 100%) accepted and some worldwide actions promised. Don't think our aquatic life have the luxury of that time.

Wishing all a Merry Christmas and, of course, a prosperous New Year!

Sincerely,

Allen Gilliam
ADEQ State Pretreatment Coordinator
501.682.0625

From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us<mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us> [mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Tenace, Laurie
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 8:18 AM
To: 'pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us'
Subject: [Pharmwaste] "Intersex" male bass found throughout protected Northeast US waters

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2015/dec/endocrine-disruption-fish-rivers-national-wildlife-refuge

Eighty-five percent of male smallmouth bass tested in or nearby 19 National Wildlife Refuges in the U.S. Northeast had signs of female reproductive parts, according to a new federal study<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147651315301093>.
The study, led by the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, also reported that 27 percent of male largemouth bass in the testing sites were intersex.
The study is the first of its kind in National Wildlife Refuges and adds to growing evidence that endocrine disrupting chemicals are getting into U.S. lakes, rivers, streams and reservoirs-no matter how protected the waters seem. And such contamination seems to affect the reproductive development of some fish species, which can lead to threatened populations.
For the bass in this study, those considered "intersex" either had a protein that is used to make egg yolk typically found in females, or immature egg cells in their testes, said co author Fred Pinkney, a biologist with the U.S. Fisheries and Wildlife.
"The eggs were in the very, very early stages," he added.
But any change to fish reproductive systems could possibly threaten overall fish populations and ability to properly reproduce.
During the fall seasons of 2008 to 2010, the researchers tested a total of 118 male smallmouth bass from 12 locations and 85 percent were intersex. They tested an additional 173 male largemouth bass from 27 sampling sites and 27 percent were intersex.
It's not entirely clear why the bass were intersex as the researchers did not test the waters for specific chemicals, said lead author Luke Iwanowicz, a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
However, the suspected culprits of the sex changes are endocrine disrupting compounds.
This includes hormones, industrial chemicals and pesticides that are or mimic estrogen hormones. These compounds enter rivers and streams via permitted effluents, stormwater and agricultural runoff, and wastewater treatment plants, where excreted birth control and natural estrogens pass through relatively un-altered.
The study is just the latest to find intersex fish in U.S. waterways and builds on a U.S. Geological Survey study in 2009<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19717194> that showed intersex male fish in nine U.S. river basins, though that study didn't include Northeast basins. The bass tested in the Northeast waterways had a higher prevalence of intersex than the fish in the 2009 study.
It seems that certain fish species may be more sensitive to estrogenic compounds than others, as evidenced by the disparity between largemouth and smallmouth bass in this study. Previous studies also have reported that smallmouth bass seem more susceptible to intersex changes.
However it's not clear if this is actual physical sensitivity to the chemicals or if it's due to some species spending more time in more contaminated habitats.
National Wildlife Refuges are areas protected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There are more than 560 such refuges nationally.
The national refuges tested spanned from eastern Ohio up to Maine and included: the Patuxent Research, Susquehanna, Montezuma, Great Swamp, Wallkill River, Great Meadows, Assabet River, Rappahannock River Valley, Mason Neck, Back Bay, John Heinz, Erie, Cherry Valley, Great Bay, Lake Umbagog, Sunkhaze Meadows, Missisquoi, Moosehorn and Ohio River Islands refuges.
Pinkney said the bass indicate that many aquatic species in Northeast U.S. refuges may be exposed to estrogenic chemicals.
"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service encourages management actions that reduce runoff into streams, ponds and lakes-both on and off of refuge lands," he said.


Laurie Tenace
Environmental Specialist
Waste Reduction Section
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Road, MS4555
Tallahassee, FL 32399
Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us<mailto:Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us>
850.245.8759

This message is the property of Amec Foster Wheeler plc and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates and is intended only for the named 
recipient(s). Its contents (including any attachments) may be confidential, legally privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure 
by law. Unauthorised use, copying, distribution or disclosure of any of it may be unlawful and is strictly prohibited. We assume 
no responsibility to persons other than the intended named recipient(s) and do not accept liability for any errors or omissions which 
are a result of email transmission. If you have received this message in error, please notify us immediately by reply email to the 
sender and confirm that the original message and any attachments and copies have been destroyed and deleted from your system.  This 
disclaimer applies to any and all messages originating from us and set out above.  If you do not wish to receive future unsolicited 
commercial electronic messages from us, please forward this email to:  unsubscribe at amecfw.com and include “Unsubscribe” in the subject 
line. If applicable, you will continue to receive invoices, project communications and similar factual, non-commercial electronic communications.

Please go to http://amecfw.com/email-disclaimer for notices and company information in relation to emails originating in the UK, Italy or France.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/pipermail/pharmwaste/attachments/20151218/accf7f3e/attachment.htm
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 115121816341401369.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 7946 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/pipermail/pharmwaste/attachments/20151218/accf7f3e/115121816341401369.jpg


More information about the Pharmwaste mailing list