Columbia River Sturgeon - Largest N. American Fish - In Big Trouble

[hatrack]

Pesticides and other pollution have turned Columbia River reservoirs into chemical stews playing havoc with the bodies of hulking white sturgeon, the largest freshwater fish on the continent.

A team of researchers that examined 174 sturgeon caught by commercial and tribal fishermen found male and immature females tricked by chemicals into thinking they are full of estrogen, a female hormone with feminizing effects. Male fish tainted with a cocktail of compounds including mercury and a byproduct of the banned pesticide DDT showed depressed testosterone levels, which could keep them from maturing enough to spawn.

A few sturgeon even had bizarre combinations of male and female sexual organs.

It suggests the reservoirs behind John Day, The Dalles and Bonneville dams have become catch basins of pollution flushed for decades into the once free-flowing Columbia. Sturgeon do not use fish ladders as do salmon, so they are trapped in the noxious soup reservoirs. The chemical compounds can confuse their bodies, throwing the natural rhythms that govern reproduction and other functions out of whack, scientists say. Chemical-laden fish suffered low body weights and weakened immune systems that could compromise their survival, said Deke Gundersen, director of environmental studies at Pacific University and part of the research team.

EDIT

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/114455131149360.xml&coll=7

[ladjf]

1. Is there anything on Earth that the human race has not totally

fucked up? We are the dumbest and meanest species on the planet.

[Kashka-Kat]

2. I don't think its meanness any more than a virus is being "mean"

by mutliplying and infecting its host and causing symptoms. The difference is of course that we supposedly have a certain degree of self awareness and free will. "Dumb" is certainly applicable.

[ladjf]

4. In the basic sense that you are applying the definitions, I agree

with you. Fundamentally, there is no such thing as "good" and "evil", only how do situations develop as varying factors come to bear. The human race is responding poorly in terms of doing the things that will perpetuate the continuation of life on Earth. If we annihilate ourselves within the next 100,000 years, we will have set the world's record for "short-gevity" (new word I made up).
Homo sapiens have only been on Earth of less than 500,000 years.

[Sequoia]

3. ROLL ON COLUMBIA

by Woody Guthrie
(tune: Good Night Irene)

Roll on, Columbia, roll on
Roll on, Columbia, roll on
Your power is turning our darkness to dawn
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

Green Douglas firs where the waters cut through
Down her wild mountains and canyons she flew
Canadian Northwest to the oceans so blue
Roll on Columbia, roll on

Other great rivers add power to you
Yakima, Snake, and the Klickitat, too
Sandy Willamette and Hood River too
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

Tom Jefferson's vision would not let him rest
An empire he saw in the Pacific Northwest
Sent Lewis and Clark and they did the rest
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

It's there on your banks that we fought many a fight
Sheridan's boys in the blockhouse that night
They saw us in death but never in flight
So roll on Columbia, roll on

At Bonneville now there are ships in the locks
The waters have risen and cleared all the rocks
Shiploads of plenty will steam past the docks
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

And on up the river is Grand Coulee Dam
The mightiest thing ever built by a man
To run the great factories and water the land
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

These mighty men labored by day and by night
Matching their strength 'gainst the river's wild flight
Through rapids and falls, they won the hard fight
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

http://www.lyricsdownload.com/guthrie-woody-roll-on-columbia-lyrics.html