moms pass on harmful pollutants to babies: a bass example

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Link to article follows the news item

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Troubled waters: striped bass moms pass on harmful pollutants to babies

nah F. Locke

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=troubled-waters-striped-\

bass-moms-p-2008-11-24

The striped bass population in San Francisco Bay has been plummeting

since the 1970s and now scientists know why: fish moms are passing down

damaging pollutants in the water to their young, according to a new

study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences. Researchers say the findings may pave the way for stiff new

regulations on the chemical culprits.

Striped bass and other fish have been dying in droves off the coast of

San Francisco for decades; pollution from industry and agricultural

runoff has long been blamed.

Now a team of scientists from the University of California, , and

the University of California, San Diego, have fingered the killer

contaminants. They found that wild female fish from the Sacramento River

produced eggs containing a host of pollutants at levels high enough to

cause biological harm. The list includes chemicals called PBDEs (flame

retardants), PCBs (a known carcinogen banned in the 1979), and a slew of

pesticides. They even found DDT, the infamous pesticide linked to cancer

that was banned in 1972 after being indicted in Carson's Silent

Spring).

The scientists performed chemical analyses that showed that baby fish

were inheriting these contaminants from their moms and that the

pollutants were causing problems such as smaller brains and livers. The

authors say that these problems probably lead many baby fish to an early

death in the wild.

And it's not just a striped bass problem. These types of pollutants may

accumulate in all kinds of fish and fowl, according to the report.

Something to mull next time you're downing that surf and turf.

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Maternal transfer of xenobiotics and effects on larval striped

bass in the San Francisco Estuary

J. Ostrach et al

PNAS published online before print November 24, 2008,

doi:10.1073/pnas.0802616105

* Abstract

<http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/11/24/0802616105.abstract>

* Full Text (PDF)

<http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/11/24/0802616105.full.pdf+html>