The 'explorers poison' the world's water is tomcod fish, which look similar to regular cod. The difference is, the size of fish that live in the Hudson River and surrounding area has a size smaller.
For information, since 1947 until 1976, companies like General Electric have been washed away PCBs and dioxin into the river in the vicinity of Hudson. In the 1980s, about 95 percent of fish in the area was found suffering from liver tumors.
"Apparently, the more we studied, the more we found the fish that are resistant to PCBs and dioxins," said Isaac Wirgin, toksikolog from New York University, as quoted from Science, February 19, 2011.
From further study, researchers concluded that in some fish, pollutants have entered the cell nucleus. Pollutants that then had disrupted the DNA from particular genes that make the fish suffer from diseases.
By coincidence, tomcod have a gene that is able to tolerate PCBs and dioxins. Thus, fish that have these genes will survive better than other fish.
Technically, tomcod is not a mutant. Chemicals group to attack only certain fish, while they can survive. Even so, there remains a negative impact.
"Generally, levels of PCBs or dioxin like this will kill the organism," ata Wirgin. "However, here they survive and become food for other living things," he said.
Wirgin mention, fish or other creatures that eat tomcod will absorb pollutants that is not necessarily to be borne by the genes of their bodies.
Furthermore, although managed to evolve to be able to survive against pollution, these fish have lost the ability to cope with natural disturbances. "For example, as the condition of decreased oxygen in the water or rising water temperatures," says Wirgin.
Translated From VIVAnews
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