In its annual "State of the Nation's River" report..the Potomac Conservancy focused on concerns first raised in 2003..when fish began dying in large numbers in such Potomac tributaries as the Shenandoah River.
As scientists investigated those fish kills..they found that male bass around the Potomac watershed were growing eggs.
The issue..
The term intersex..or intersexual characteristics..describes a range of abnormalities in which both male and female characteristics are present in the same fish. Intersexual characteristics are most commonly described as the presence of female germ cells..which are the precursor to mature eggs..in a male reproductive organ.
The occurrence of intersex fish has been related to chemicals..often termed endocrine disruptors..that affect the reproductive system. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interfere with the natural balance of hormones that regulate development, reproduction, metabolism, behavior and the internal state of living organisms. Occasionally these abnormalities can be noted externally but most often the main reproductive organs must be examined under a microscope for diagnosis of intersexual characteristics.
The presence of this abnormality or intersexual characteristic has been used as an indicator of exposure to estrogenic chemicals and has been documented in a variety of wild fish species in a number of rivers and estuaries around the U.S. and several other countries.
It seems likely..the report said..that the cause is not a single chemical but a mixture whose components might be different around the river. Pesticides might dominate in rural areas..for instance and human hormones downstream of a sewage plant.
Hedrick Belin..the conservancy's president..said that the best solution to the problem was to try to keep these chemicals out of the water in the first place. That could entail increased testing to figure out which chemicals have hormone-mimicking properties or installing measures to keep animal waste from washing downstream.
Hormone-mimicking chemicals "don't set our river on fire. They don't wash up onshore. We're not seeing them; we're not able to smell them," Belin said. "But the intersex fish . . . is a clear signal that something is wrong."This month..the USFS released the final report of a six-year study, titled "Assessment of Endocrine Disruption in Smallmouth Bass and Largemouth Bass in the Potomac River Watershed." The study found a substantial proportion of abnormal fish from sites on the Potomac and Monocacy rivers and the Conococheague Creek in Washington County. Some sites were reported to have between 82 and 100 percent of the male fish with some female characteristics.
Although the risk to humans from fish with intersexual characteristics is currently unknown, the much bigger issue is the quality of the water that the Potomac provides to the millions of people who take their drinking water from it. The river supplies drinking water for Frederick, Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland, Fairfax County in Virginia and the DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
If the water in your river makes the male fish grow vaginas..stay thirsty. If I wanted to drink something that makes me grow a vagina..I’d order a wine cooler or a Zima. Which is why I stopped drinking wine coolers..and Zima's in the first place.
Peace out my HALEYUNNS!
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