Scrapes Entry 4
Hormone in Manure Are Changing Fish Genders:
In Indiana, recent studies in agricultural streams have shown that the ratio of male-to-female fish has been skewed. The streams have become contaminated with runoff from the fertilizer, which contains manure, causing the hormones in the manure to become dissolved into the streams. Purdue University researchers raised fathead minnows in samples from Indiana agricultural streams, and ended up with sixty percent males, when uncontaminated streams contain forty eight percent males. The hormones released by the farm animals, testosterone and estrogen, are being found in eighty percent of the water samples from the agricultural streams. These hormones could be linked to the skewed ratio of genders in the fish populations. These fish populations also came with fifty percent less diversity, along with twenty eight percent higher adult death rate than the streams that were not exposed to these hormones. These sets of data that were collected were supported by the all male population of zebra fish in a 2006 lab study by the University of Southern Denmark, and also by a 2004 study in Orlando, where lower testosterone levels and sexually immature fish were observed. While this information has not been able to be proven true, Indiana still believes that regulations need to be altered to reduce their affect on the streams.
I chose this article because the title caught my eye, and I thought it could be interesting. To me, the most interesting thing about this article was that our farms that supply us with food and other essential products has such a large consequence, that is destroying one of the resources we need. This article reminds me of when I would visit my family in Arizona, and my grandfather would take me to swim in the river, and the river was always clear and we could see all the fish. Now these rivers that supplied me with great memories are becoming ruined by simple farming.
The actions we, as a community, could do to stop this, is to cut back on our meat consumption, or to become vegetarians. This is because if there was a much smaller demand for these products, we would not need to have such large farms with such large populations of animals in them. As a result of this, the amount of manure/waste that would be produced would drop, causing our rivers and streams to begin recovering. This also shows how small operations that go on under our noses, like the farms, could affect the world so massively, and indirectly, our populations.
In Indiana, recent studies in agricultural streams have shown that the ratio of male-to-female fish has been skewed. The streams have become contaminated with runoff from the fertilizer, which contains manure, causing the hormones in the manure to become dissolved into the streams. Purdue University researchers raised fathead minnows in samples from Indiana agricultural streams, and ended up with sixty percent males, when uncontaminated streams contain forty eight percent males. The hormones released by the farm animals, testosterone and estrogen, are being found in eighty percent of the water samples from the agricultural streams. These hormones could be linked to the skewed ratio of genders in the fish populations. These fish populations also came with fifty percent less diversity, along with twenty eight percent higher adult death rate than the streams that were not exposed to these hormones. These sets of data that were collected were supported by the all male population of zebra fish in a 2006 lab study by the University of Southern Denmark, and also by a 2004 study in Orlando, where lower testosterone levels and sexually immature fish were observed. While this information has not been able to be proven true, Indiana still believes that regulations need to be altered to reduce their affect on the streams.
I chose this article because the title caught my eye, and I thought it could be interesting. To me, the most interesting thing about this article was that our farms that supply us with food and other essential products has such a large consequence, that is destroying one of the resources we need. This article reminds me of when I would visit my family in Arizona, and my grandfather would take me to swim in the river, and the river was always clear and we could see all the fish. Now these rivers that supplied me with great memories are becoming ruined by simple farming.
The actions we, as a community, could do to stop this, is to cut back on our meat consumption, or to become vegetarians. This is because if there was a much smaller demand for these products, we would not need to have such large farms with such large populations of animals in them. As a result of this, the amount of manure/waste that would be produced would drop, causing our rivers and streams to begin recovering. This also shows how small operations that go on under our noses, like the farms, could affect the world so massively, and indirectly, our populations.