Ecologists keep tabs on sturgeon, a prehistoric fish that likes the Missouri River's muddy waters. The pallid sturgeon and the lake sturgeon are endangered, and the more common shovelnose sturgeon has become "a species of concern."
In addition to habitat loss and overfishing, sturgeon face another possible challenge: The pill. The prevalence of sturgeon with male and female sex organs has researchers wondering if the fish are drowning in birth control and other drugs that toilets empty into rivers and streams.
According to a Columbia Missourian story, ecologists became alarmed at the discovery in 2000 of a shovelnose sturgeon with intersex characteristics that were "visible to the naked eye." The fish had eggs growing around its white testicular tissue.
Scientists at the Columbia Environmental Research Center could not find a correlation between androgynous sturgeon and common contaminants such as PCBs. So their attention turned to ethinyl estradiol, the estrogen found in the pill.
The Missourian reports that the Columbia Environmental Research teamed up with the Missouri Department of Conservation to study fish in different parts of the state. Outside of urban areas, which have more birth control feeding into more toilets, the intersex rates reached 23 percent. (Most water treatment plants are not effective at removing pharmaceutical compounds.)
The sturgeon's inability to thrive has scientists wondering if oral contraceptives are lowering birth rates both on land and in the water. A fish that outlived dinosaurs may face family planning as its toughest challenge.
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