Two-headed Fishes in Australia Point to Chemical Contamination of Water

In the popular cartoon The Simpsons, the waste from the nuclear power plant where Homer works has created three-eyed fish (in intro video). That's fiction, but somehow, science fact can be just as odd and alarming. In Australia, for instance, fishes with two heads have been discovered. These fishes - bass - are in the larval stages and they survive only about 48 hours as what was observed in a Noosa River fish farm.

Matt Landos of the Australian College of Veterinarian Scientists says the two-headedness mutation and convulsions happen when they use water from the site in question and from collected bass from the same source. He says he has never seen anything like it in his career as a veterinarian. He's excluded biological infection as the cause and fear that the contamination comes from a nearby macadamia nut plantation where pesticides may have been used. He claims incidence of the mutation has increased in the past two years in spawning areas near the plantation.

The incidence of zoological mutations only shows how dangerous chemicals can be to the environment. Even if chemicals like pesticides are administered in low doses, they accumulate in time like what has happened in many parts of the world where the pesticide DDT was used. The chemical moved its way into the food chain and one of the results was overly thin shells of eagle eggs. Farmers should switch to organic farming where non-chemical pest deterrents are used instead.

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