Estrogen in wastewater affecting ocean fish (DDT mentioned)

Daily bulletin ^ | 11/28/05 | Kevin Butler

[GreenFreeper]

Some problematic estrogen mimics.....

....scientists found 11 out of 82 male hornyhead turbot collected off the Southern California coast had small eggs growing in their testes.

Now that is scary!

[GreenFreeper]

ECO-PING

FReepmail me to be added or removed to the ECO-PING list!

[TommyDale]

I wonder what the estrogen levels are in the San Francisco drinking water? That might explain a lot...

[Mercat]

the other thing that is scary is all of the soy products that we eat all the time.

[Calpernia]

homosexual agenda?

[GreenFreeper]

The land of fruits and nuts!

[LongElegantLegs]

Hornyhead Turbot ping!

[Cold Heart]

What do you me We?

On another note, U of Hawaii study (1980's) showed long term consumption of tofu caused brain atrophy.

[Maximus of Texas]

..."is getting in touch with its feminine side"

Hey, wait a minute. Doesn't Pissant live on the Pacific coast? And isn't he a big fish eater (pissant, please refrain from the obvious)? Does this explain some of his posts?

[EggsAckley]

"the hornyhead turbot, which feeds on animals in the sediment, could be ingesting estrogen."

Heh.

[LongElegantLegs]

Well, he does get along well with lots of Freeper wimmin...

[LongElegantLegs]

Can you ping your list for the Hornyhead Turbot?

[GreenFreeper]

The Hornyhead Turbot

[LongElegantLegs]

Appetizing...

[varyouga]

Uhh-Oh. Better check SF water

[Thermalseeker]

On another note, U of Hawaii study (1980's) showed long term consumption of tofu caused brain atrophy.

I would think that one would have to already have brain atrophy in order to consider consuming tofu. Nasty stuff, that tofu....and yes, I've tried it. Yukko!

[Carry_Okie]

....scientists found 11 out of 82 male hornyhead turbot collected off the Southern California coast had small eggs growing in their testes.

Not necessarily. Do these scientists have a historic baseline for the normal condition of hornyhead turbot indicating that this condition is unusual for that species?

Consider this:

Of the vertebrates in the animal kingdom, sex determination is usually a fixed characteristic in terms of life history. Interestingly, there are a few organisms for whom sex is a plastic condition, often determined by a combination of internal and external signals. One such group of organisms which follows this trend are the tropical teleosts: the conspicuous coloful fish inhabiting coral reefs.

Source

It would seem sexual plasticity, or at least its potential, may not be uncommon in fish. This could well be more eco-fear-mongering.

[Signalman]

So THIS explains all those girly-men living in, and around, the Santa Monica area.

[GreenFreeper]

It would seem sexual plasticity, or at least its potential, may not be uncommon in fish.

True, fish are fairly plastic organisms, even in terms of sex. But as your quote said it often "determined by a combination of internal and external signals." Estrogen mimics seem like pretty good signals to me.

Further, there seems to be a ton of research on the hornyhead turbot and none i can find historically document any signs of feminization (not to say it didn't occur). Here is an older paper that makes no mention of it Aspects of the Life History of Hornyhead Turbot, Pleuronichthys verticalis, off Southern California and cites that they are heavily monitored due to their accumulation of metals and chlorinated hydrocarbons.

[little jeremiah]

I don't. Soy sauce a few times a year, that's it. Used to eat tofu a lot and gave it up.