Republican Environmental Policy
Jan 25th, 2006 at 7:09 am by Susie
Don’t worry, be happy:
Catfish from Maryland’s South River have a skin cancer rate as high as any found in the nation and the second-highest liver cancer rate in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and both are probably caused by polluted runoff, a study released yesterday says.
In the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study, more than half the brown bullheads — a type of catfish — sampled from the South River had skin tumors, the highest incidence in 14 years of bay watershed testing. The rate matches that found in Great Lakes bullheads, which had the nation’s highest.
One-fifth of the South River bullheads tested had liver cancer, a rate second only to that of the Anacostia River, where studies in 2001 showed nearly 70 percent of bullheads had liver tumors.
“The fish are clearly exposed to cancer-causing agents, and at this point, we really don’t know what chemicals are responsible,” said Fred Pinkney, the Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who conducted the study. “We suspect it’s from [polluted] runoff.”
The agency hopes to pinpoint the carcinogen by next year if it finds money for additional work. The initial study was partly paid for by the South River Federation, a nonprofit group that monitors the 12-mile river, which flows through Anne Arundel County into the bay just south of Annapolis.
Bullheads are used in river studies because they live and feed on the bottom, where toxins accumulate; they don’t migrate far; and they metabolize certain carcinogens just as humans do.
Despite the alarming findings, Richard McIntire, a Maryland Department of the Environment spokesman, said the state is not likely to issue a catfish consumption advisory for the South River. “This has been a known problem for quite some time,” McIntire said.
“If you catch any fish that looks strange,” he added, “throw it back.”
The state also has no plans for advisories on swimming and other recreational use, based on cancer findings, he said.
As they always say:…”There’s something in the water”. My favorite bedtime environmental story is here in Fla… We had the funds and the legal responsibility to begin restoration of the everglades, a needed and worthwhile project if done correctly. Then “jeb” was elected. Here we are 8 years later, funds diminished ( some were pulled for another program of sorts) and the project’s barely on a roll. The repeeuuu’s pulled the same stunt with other voter-enacted state laws concerning schoolroom class downsizing and a mass transit system that was voted on twice as a “go” but has yet to go anywhere.
The latest environmental blunder is they have just downgraded the Manatee from endangered to threatened. Just about every indigenous species concerning biota in Florida is considered “threatened” which means about nothing. Leaves that up to county comprehensive plans, toothless wonders cobbled together by county commissioners/ realtors and their buddies in the development business. They say last year there were 500 manatee deaths, a very high number and representing a typical assured % of the kill rate due to interaction by humans. At any rate the downgrading will allow more marinas to be built and do away with all those pesky protection speed zones that gave this species half a chance to make it.
What we will get is more idiots in large useless plastic boats hauling ass from noplace to nowhere and back… messing up everything in between. If you think Hummers are obnoxious, you should see their friggin boats.
Many of us are at wit’s end with these fools, just another rant. But I have the right to bitch, as I have spent a good portion of my adult life talking and doing good environment. I have worked many volunteer programs, pacs, boards and of course field work, and it just pisses me off to see it all unravel. Damn, I hate these people.
It won’t be long before we have fish like the three-eyed ones near Montgomery Burns Springfield nuclear power plant. Yumm!
This falls right along the lines of mercury problem. Just eat less dumb ass and you wont die of cancer.
Never mind the fact they could fix the problem with laws and stuff. That just be “hard werk and all”
I am cancelling my scuba lessons in the Choptank River for the summer.
I think Dubya should eat more local fish and seafood.