Even though we already have sophisticated test instruments
to assess levels of environmental pollution but can a “coughing fish” provide a
better and faster water quality assessment?
By: Ringo Bones
Environmentalists had always been looking for ways to
monitor water pollution are turning for help to creatures that have a vested
interest in clean water – as in fishes. French technicians began the trend in
1973; they checked the waters of the Oise River by observing one peculiar kind
of fish behavior: trout that are swimming upstream reverse their direction upon
encountering pollution. Back in April 1974, scientists of the US Environmental
Protection Agency announced the discovery of another potentially useful
piscatorial reaction in the behavior of bluefish, sunfish, flathead minnows,
trout and salmon.
The researchers had found out that the fish began to cough
more frequently when concentrations of mercury and copper became great enough
to interfere with growth and reproduction. Aquatic biologist Robert Drummond,
who directed the study, suggested that monitoring devices could be installed in
waters near industrial and waste-treatment plants to record fish coughing and
sounds an alarm if there were any sudden increase. Environmentalists would thus
be warned that a plant in the vicinity was releasing a potentially harmful
effluent into the water and would be able to act immediately to halt the
discharge.
1 comment:
There was a later study by aquatic biologists Robert Drummond where his "coughing fish" research was eventually used to monitor cadmium contamination levels and its affects on biodiversity in large bodies of water.
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