KING 5 NEWS Report: Males to Females, morphing.

[THE REEL HEY_YALL]

An environmental mystery: Male salmon morphing into females.

HANFORD REACH – The Hanford Reach is the best spawning ground left for Columbia River salmon. Here the river is undammed, free-flowing, and newly protected by the federal government.

But now there’s troubling new evidence that the Hanford Reach may not be such a safe haven for salmon, after all. Something is turning male fish into females.

It surprised researchers James Nagler, of the University of Idaho, and Gary Thorgaard, of Washington State University. Scientists from around the world have already documented evidence of sexual abnormalities in several species of wildlife that could be caused by chemical pollution. But Nagler and Thorgaard thought such gender bending was unlikely among Columbia River chinook salmon.

Still, they pressed ahead, collecting the carcasses of 100 spawned-out chinook from the Reach’s productive gravel beds. They took samples for genetic tests on each one.

Back in the lab, they made a stunning discovery. Four out of every five female salmon they tested had one male chromosome, indicating they began life as males.

"We were really surprised. It really caught us off guard, I guess, first of all, that there was any incidence of it, but also that eighty-odd percent tested positive,” said James Nagler.

Nagler and Thorgaard are convinced the sex change happens when the salmon are hatching from their eggs. And it’s just happening to wild fish. Closely-related salmon from a nearby hatchery show no signs of gender bending.

"It suggests it has something to do with the river. It’s wild fish that are in the river that are somehow being influenced here,” said Nagler.

So what is it in the Columbia that is causing baby fish to change sexes? That is the mystery.

It could be triggered by chemicals or changes in water temperature caused by dams upstream. But the scientists don’t believe radioactive material from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has anything to do with the sex reversals.

This winter, Nagel and Thorgaard are trying to replicate the sex reversal with baby salmon in a lab, to better understand what’s behind it. They’ve also been back out to the Hanford Reach, collecting more carcasses from a river they now believe holds some hidden hazard for the salmon that hatch there.

[Hoosier Daddy]

This came out in the papers awhile ago. It was posted here as well.

[Jim]

Water temp....have a fish farmer friend that purposefully and successfully does this...but hey sounds like a heck of a good reason to get some grant money!!

Jim

[THE REEL HEY_YALL]

chnookie, yes it has been talked about here on the BB before, but this made it back to the news, as of yesterday. So are these "she-its" (that's how us southern folk say poo also) producing eggs like a normal hen? Heck, that's more eggs to go around then I wouldn't be surprised if some tribal scientists had something to do with it. Just kidding, but sometimes I have a conspriracy theory or two. Still though, I'm sure this is a bad bad thing.

[THE REEL HEY_YALL]

Jim, I've read some things on artificial insemination back in college in biology, about how people could almost pick what sex they wanted their child to be by altering the temperatures a few degrees to give the result. It had about an 80 % rate I think. They say this happens in the natural world as well, as in how warm the semen is during intercourse. Just a variation in temperature can produce a certain sex. I think the studies on subjects in this test were about 76 % effective. Clearly if those readings are correct, they coincide with the salmon world as well.

[Dances]

Have you guys ever thought that it might jsut be mother nature hard at work tryin to correct our mistakes. But if not then well we might be in trouble


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Work is for people who dont know how to fish

[Phish_on]

Oh no, it never has anything to do with all the toxic goop seeping out of Hanford. "There is no immediate danger to the public."
No trouble, nope, no radioactive sludge here, everything's fine, mmm-hmm.

[FEAR NO FISH!]

Don't anybody start making fun of the Tri-Cities women. A little extra body hair is kinda cute. Hey Phish on, I work at Hanford, nothing to be afraid of. TRUST ME! At night we sight fish for salmon and steelies. They show up like glow sticks.

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FEAR NO FISH!

[Hoosier Daddy]

Not saying I trust Hanford or anything, but this kind of stuff does happen in nature quite often. Lots of species have a temperature response to sex. I think it is typically the males-to-females thing also, rarely the females-to-males.
Also, the article said they examined spawned out carcasses. Who knows if they were successful or not though. Also, they didn't mention what the overall sex ratio was. If its still close to 50:50, this may be no big deal. Since this appears to be the first time anyone has looked for them, maybe this has been happening for a long time. Hell, maybe this is the reason the Hanford population is still relatively large. That's a pretty long way to go for a female driver without having an accident, a little male genes in there may be a great survival adaptation!!!!
OK, I know I shouldn't say stuff like that, I'm sorry, Just Kidding.

[This message has been edited by chnookie (edited 02-09-2001).]