"Intersex" Male Bass Found Throughout Protected Northeast US Waters

[FloridaFishinFool]

The Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge was one of 19 refuges where intersex bass were found (USFWS)

 

"Intersex" male bass found throughout protected Northeast US waters

Smallmouth and largemouth black bass in wildlife refuges across the US Northeast have female parts, bolstering evidence that estrogenic compounds in our water are messing with fish

December 17, 2015

By Brian Bienkowski
Environmental Health News

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 newfederal study.

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.

USFWS

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 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.
 

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For questions or feedback about this piece, contact Brian Bienkowski at bbienkowski@ehn.org.

 

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[FloridaFishinFool]

And now for the blame game:

(I can not confirm or deny the accuracy of the following image as to who they claim is the source of the chemical problem...)

[Darren.]

So. Does this mean double the bass beds during
spawn?

Sorry, bad joke... Serious issue, the chemicals we 
flush down the loo.

[lo n slo]

it's staggering when you consider the quantities of these chemicals, and drugs that are allowed to be unleashed upon our environment and ourselves, with little regard as to their effects. we always seem to be in damage control mode? i fear that the fish may not be the only ones affected by this. our drinking waters most certainly are as well. thanks for posting this FFF.

[Senko lover]

I remember seeing something about this in an old Bassmaster magazine. Kinda interesting....

[everythingthatswims]

"We've got the buck bass on the beds, and the females staging on the first break, but I'm currently fishing a pattern for what we call the inbetweeners."

[Raul]

Ban contraceptive pills immediately !

[soflabasser]

Thank you for posting this!

[SoFloBassFiend]

6 hours ago, lo n slo said:

it's staggering when you consider the quantities of these chemicals, and drugs that are allowed to be unleashed upon our environment and ourselves, with little regard as to their effects. we always seem to be in damage control mode? i fear that the fish may not be the only ones affected by this. our drinking waters most certainly are as well. thanks for posting this FFF.

You must mean how the FDA will approve drugs for minor skin conditions which side effects are cancer and lymphomas. It kills me how they can advertise these drugs let alone release them. The FDA is preying on the uneducated!!!

[herbu]

4 hours ago, SoFloBassFiend said:

The FDA is preying on the uneducated!!!

I think this thread is preying on the uneducated.  None of us know what caused this, how long it's been happening, or even if it's normal.  Funny how many people can reach a conclusion with so little information.  Perhaps it is just a new sub-species... Micropterus salmoides jennerus. 

[Paul Roberts]

It certainly isn't something to ignore either. While activist agendas will jump to conclusions that support their interests, there are a lot of level heads in the game too, which includes many if not most (in my experience) that are actually doing the work. I for one am watching this phenomenon with interest and some trepidation.

[HoosierHawgs]

13 hours ago, Senko lover said:

I remember seeing something about this in an old Bassmaster magazine. Kinda interesting....

Just popped up in this month's BASS TIMES as well.

[Raul]

4 hours ago, herbu said:

I think this thread is preying on the uneducated.  None of us know what caused this, how long it's been happening, or even if it's normal.  Funny how many people can reach a conclusion with so little information.  Perhaps it is just a new sub-species... Micropterus salmoides jennerus. 

So then those will be called Caitlin bass ?

[ww2farmer]

As someone who regularly uses Glyphosate, and Atrazine, blaming these two products for genetic mutations in wildlife is laughable at best. 

[deaknh03]

4 minutes ago, ww2farmer said:

As someone who regularly uses Glyphosate, and Atrazine, blaming these two products for genetic mutations in wildlife is laughable at best. 

because you use those 2 drugs you are an expert on any effects it has on every organism on earth?

[deaknh03]

The toxicity associated with atrazine has been documented extensively. The adverse reproductive effects of atrazine have been seen in amphibians, mammals, and humans-even at low levels of exposure. Concentrations as low as 0.1 ppb have been shown to alter the development of sex characteristics in male frogs. When exposure coincides with the development of the brain and reproductive organs, that timing may be even more critical than the dose. Also of great concern is the potential for atrazine to act synergistically with other pesticides to increase their toxic effects.

[corn-on-the-rob]

As much as I am intrigued by this information, I was pretty much stopped dead in my tracks when the words "researchers did not test the water" were uttered.  From what is presented here, regardless of likeliness of the actual cause, is merely speculation.

This leaves too many questions:

Has there always been inter-sex characteristics present in a "normal" population of bass that has been relatively unaffected by unnatural chemical influence? If so, what percentage? Is it increasing? At what rate? Can this just be a natural fluctuation or change in nature?

They mention these "changes" but are bass with inter-sex characteristics unable to reproduce properly? If they can, what are the other possible negatives? Are there any benefits to these characteristics?

Are these specific endocrine disrupting compounds the only possible culprits? Etc, etc, etc.

 

I am all for protecting these waters and doing whatever is necessary to more strictly regulate these chemicals, but without data to support and identify an actual cause and its actual impact, it's really hard to facilitate change.

 

 

 

[deaknh03]

17 hours ago, Darren. said:

So. Does this mean double the bass beds during
spawn?

Sorry, bad joke... Serious issue, the chemicals we 
flush down the loo.

These are chemicals put on or near the food you eat, then are runoff into our drinking water. 

[Paul Roberts]

26 minutes ago, corn-on-the-rob said:

As much as I am intrigued by this information, I was pretty much stopped dead in my tracks when the words "researchers did not test the water" were uttered.  From what is presented here, regardless of likeliness of the actual cause, is merely speculation.

This leaves too many questions:

Has there always been inter-sex characteristics present in a "normal" population of bass that has been relatively unaffected by unnatural chemical influence? If so, what percentage? Is it increasing? At what rate? Can this just be a natural fluctuation or change in nature?

They mention these "changes" but are bass with inter-sex characteristics unable to reproduce properly? If they can, what are the other possible negatives? Are there any benefits to these characteristics?

Are these specific endocrine disrupting compounds the only possible culprits? Etc, etc, etc.

 

I am all for protecting these waters and doing whatever is necessary to more strictly regulate these chemicals, but without data to support and identify an actual cause and its actual impact, it's really hard to facilitate change.

 

 

 

This is exactly what why the work is being done. Lotsa questions need to be answered.

[ww2farmer]

2 hours ago, deaknh03 said:

because you use those 2 drugs you are an expert on any effects it has on every organism on earth?

Didn't say I was an expert, but when those products (glyphosate, and atrazine) are used in accordance with the instructions on the label, run off, and harm to anything other than the intended target pest is minimal (with atrazine) and non-existent with glyphosate. The problem is not with the products, it's with idiots who don't follow the label. Are you the kind of person that blames the car or the booze mfg. when a drunk gets behind the wheel and causes harm to others?

[Raul]

Many many moons ago when I worked at SEPESCA ( Secretaria de Pesca ) in Mexico ( it was a DNRish kind of government agency ) at the aquaculture centers we distributed to tilapia farmers hormone ( testosterone ) enriched pelleted food, feeding the tilapia fingerlings with the food during the stage where they develop their gonads created irreversibly sterile females, same thing has been done to other fish species and some fish species ( like clownfish ) can change sex.

The influence of hormones and hormonal like compounds is well documented and studied, for example, in the case of some mammals like bovines twin pregnancies are not common and when they happen if one of the fetuses is male and the other is female the female is automatically eliminated because it´s going to suffer from something called Freemartin Syndrome, the male hormones produced by her twin brother cause atrophy of her reproductive system, she will be sterile and of no use.

 

 

[ww2farmer]

3 minutes ago, Raul said:

 

The influence of hormones and hormonal like compounds is well documented and studied, for example, in the case of some mammals like bovines twin pregnancies are not common and when they happen if one of the fetuses is male and the other is female the female is automatically eliminated because it´s going to suffer from something called Freemartin Syndrome, the male hormones produced by her twin brother cause atrophy of her reproductive system, she will be sterile and of no use.

 

 

A freemartin holstein heifer is mighty fine eatin'. One more than one occasion I have a freezer full of them. Back when we had a dairy we would always be like "wooo hooo free beef" when a cow had a set of twins and one was a freemartin. Sell the bull calf at the market, and raise the heifer for beef on cheap free forage that was basiclly "throw away" feed for the milking heard. We had 1000+ head of milking cows, and it happened about a dozen times a year.

[lo n slo]

5 hours ago, Paul Roberts said:

It certainly isn't something to ignore either. While activist agendas will jump to conclusions that support their interests, there are a lot of level heads in the game too, which includes many if not most (in my experience) that are actually doing the work. I for one am watching this phenomenon with interest and some trepidation.

Glad you brought that up. I am a retired water works guy. I served as the operations supervisor in charge of drinking water treatment facilities during my last 15 years. One of our last NC regional conferences dealt with this very subject. That was over 5 years ago though. Things have changed since then I'm sure. We must identify the threat, develop a method of testing, then a method of removal (including source identification/elimination) within the drinking water/waste treatment industry nation wide. These methods are also subject to issues such as cost effectiveness and political influence. 

[Fishing Rhino]

Okay, consider this.  Humans have reproductive parts that are usually equated to the opposite sex.

For instance, men have nipples.  It's certain that men do not have nipples as a result of chemical pollution.  However, one of the side effects of meds to reduce the size of a prostate gland is that males may develop man boobs, and discontinuing the use of these drugs will not result in the "boobs" shrinking away.

As the saying goes, "More information is needed."

[corn-on-the-rob]

6 hours ago, Paul Roberts said:

This is exactly what why the work is being done. Lotsa questions need to be answered.

Yea I agree completely, but they collected tons of information over a decently long period of time, yet neglected to collect critical information as well that should have been done alongside. Obviously they can go back and test the waters that they collected data from, and while it certainly would be telling, it would not be as credible as the levels fluctuate and may be higher than they were or in the opposite case, non-existent though they may have been present at the time they tested the fish. It is just a little frustrating to me.

I am going to conduct a study to record the top speed of 10 random vehicles, then  because I suspect it, I will attribute the fastest one's speed to having more HP, then present my study with out ever looking under the hood to see if that was actually the case.

 

I actually don't know much about these chemicals, I shall return!