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Feisty Mutated Fish Unlikely Hudson River Survivors
By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 18, 2011
Modified Feb 18, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 18, 2011
Modified Feb 18, 2011
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The Hudson River is home to a colorful cast of creatures, from baby seals to handguns to 4.4 million gallons of sewage. And you can now add mutated freak fish to that list!
Thirty years ago, researchers found that 94 percent of two-year-old Atlantic tomcod, which are brownish, mottled fish a bit longer than a hand, collected in the Hudson carried a type of liver tumor. Discovery News reports that the tomcod have evolved and adapted since then, in order to survive living amongst all the toxins that make the Hudson one of the most polluted rivers in the U.S. We truly can't imagine what they would have evolved into if they were in the Gowanus Canal.There is one downside to their admirable survival: the tomcod's are prime meals for larger striped bass, which means that the toxins in them are getting introduced into the food chain.
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hudson river
mutated fish
mutation
tomcod
toxins
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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