By: Greg Clary, Gannett News Service February 20, 2011
The discovery of PCB-resistant fish in the Hudson River is known as one of the fastest species adaptations on record. Usually, if the fish followed normal natural selection, it would have taken thousands of years to mutate but for this case, it only took about 50 years. Researchers have been studying these fish for years, even bringing in control fish to monitor the growth. The Atlantic tomcods were the fish that were unaffected from being exposed to toxic levels while the control fish were much more sensitive. The fast adapting of the Atlantic tomcods comes down to one gene, said by Isaac Wirgin, the New Rochelle resident that lead the research team who made the discovery. The Atlantic tomcods have two missing amino acids, that the control fish have, which gives the ability to prevent the man made toxins to the tomcods. This change in the gene caused and evolutionary change and the funding of the removing of PCBs should still be happening. The PCBs are not going to go about by themselves. (picture- Isaac Wirgin holding an Atlantic tomcod)
Taking thousands a years to adapt is a long time but going from thousands to just 50 is a big difference in the natural selection process. I never knew animals could adapt to a man made toxin. Since it's man made you would think that the fish wouldn't be able to adapt at all. I have never been to the Hudson River so I don't know how bad the water is but since the Atlantic tomcods feed on the bottom of the Hudson and millions of pounds of PCBs have been dumped, it must be very unhealthy for the fish. I'm surprised that some people would think that since the fish adapted to the PCBs that they should stop the funding of trying to clean the river up. The PCBs changed life and the funding should continue until the river is clean.
How do you think they could get rid of the PCB in the Hudson River faster?
Why do you think the fish are adapting to what man puts in the river?
How are the fish affecting the people?
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110220/NEWS01/102200362/Hudson-fish-adapts-fast-to-resist-PCBs
How do the PCB-resistant fish even adapt so quickly? What's their secret because I think other species should do the same. It's pretty cool that the tomcods survived that toxic level, I can't even imagine how the scientists even found out how do make this experiment. Fish are apparently discovering ways to adapts to different things. People think that fish are so stupid and don't know anything, but they could really show you a lot about what they can do. Species adapt to things to stay alive, and I think these fish are learning to adapt more rapidly because of was what we humans dispose of in the water. If they were unable to adapt, an enormous amount of them would probably die.
ReplyDeleteThe adaption that these fish made is incredible, yet still totally realistic. Now that the earth is ever changing and these chemicals are killing off many of the fish that cannot handle these toxins. If the animals without this adaption can't handle the chemicals, then that type of species will pretty quickly die off leaving only the ones with the adaptions. If this type of thing happened with almost any other species the same would happen. Though this is much quicker of an adaption rate then ever seen before, I believe we will keep seeing adaptions taking control much quicker than they have in the past. - Quinn O'Donnell
ReplyDeleteWow! It is simply amazing how these fish adapted to the PCB. If all fish were resistant to the harsh acids, our fish population would be much larger. I think that we will continute to see more and more of the mutations in the future. If scientists continue to look further into this study, they could learn a lot from these fish. Overall, I think it is very interesting how this fish can manage the toxic levels. Here is a picture I found of the fish ~ I was suprised at how big the fish were!(I thought they were going to be a lot bigger!!)
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This seems to be a very serious problem, and I think action should be taken swiftly to control the amount of toxins in the Hudson River. The Atlantic Tomcods could completely take control of the river and destroy it's entire ecosystem. Also, it cannot be healthy that these fish are basically being mutated. Even if it is an adpaption, it did not happen naturally and can only have negative effects in the long run. However, if the toxins are cleaned out too quickly, the fish may not be able to readapt and could go extinct. Just the fact that PCB was even put in the Hudson River in the first place is unacceptable. There will probably be much damage done that cannot be reversed even if clean up efforts are taken.
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