33% - 100% Of Largemouth Bass Sampled In Delmarva Counties Show Intersex Characteristics

[hatrack]

Scientists have found more intersex fish in Maryland, this time on the Eastern Shore, and their research suggests one possible source of the gender-bending condition could be the poultry manure that is widely used there to fertilize croplands.

Six lakes and ponds on the Delmarva Peninsula sampled over the past two years have yielded male largemouth bass carrying eggs, according to University of Maryland scientists. Those are the first intersex fish reported there, though researchers found the condition several years ago in smallmouth bass in the Potomac and its tributaries, and recently found it in smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna.

Intersex fish are a concern, scientists say, because they could be indicators of contaminants in the water, affecting their growth and reproduction.

The intersex condition in the Shore fish is not as severe as it is among fish from the Potomac or Susquehanna, the researchers said, but it appears to be widespread, at least in largemouth bass in the peninsula's lakes and ponds.
"We find it in every lake that we look," said Daniel J. Fisher, senior research scientist at UM's Wye Research and Education Center in Queenstown. "We found fish with intersex in all of the lakes, and the percentage ranged from 33 percent of fish we sampled to 100 percent."

EDIT

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/bs-gr-intersex-fish-shore-20101111,0,4527836.story

[Ian David]

1. Shouldn't we let market forces determine if people will buy transgendered fish? n/t

[hatrack]

2. Only if those transgendered fish aren't demanding any special rights!

:eyes:

[CAG]

3. I think the fish CHOSE to be that way

Surely you're not saying that its genetics, cuz that's not what the family research council's evidence shows.

[veganlush]

4. Tax cuts for the rich would solve that problem..n/t

[kristopher]

5. I'll send a copy of the story to our local (Delmarva) wingnut radio station

Their listener base are farmer friendly, anti-government oversight, and extremely homophobic outdoors folk who love fishing.

I can't think of a story that is better designed to make their heads explode; but I can't stand listening long enough to find out if it will be picked up.

[pscot]

6. A trans-gendered bass

is still really butch.