Re: NANFA-- FW: fish for experiments
Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus_at_hotmail.com)
Thu, 08 Nov 2001 12:22:27 -0500
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>From: "Bob Bock" <bockhouse_at_earthlink.net>
>Reply-To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
>Subject: Re: NANFA-- FW: fish for experiments
>Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001 07:39:45 -0500
>
>They're so tough, though, that they might not show any ill effects.
>Perhaps
>fatheads?
That's why mummichogs were originally used, because they are tough enough to
survive almost anything except genuine toxicity. The most interesting recent
fieldwork I've seen with them was in New Bedford harbor in MA. This area is
incredibly polluted with PCBs, and in the inner harbor the only fish that
seems to thrive is the mummichog. Some people in the lab of Steve Palumbi at
Harvard were doing a genetics study of these fish compared to other
populations and found that there was significant genetic change (adaptation)
in the New Bedford fish that seemd to enable them to survive in this
environment. Introducing other mummichogs into equivalent conditions in the
lab would quickly kill them, while the New Bedford fish went about their
business.
Interestingly, the same genetic change in response to sustained pollution
has been found in some populations of the Central Stoneroller, Campostoma
anomalum.
--Bruce Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL, US of A
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