Don’t Eat Smallie Privates…

…if you’re catching ’em in the Susquehanna River, as well as CO, DE, IA and OH.

Disturbing stuff.

As far as PA goes, we’ve covered the problems Susquehanna smallies are facing, and the questionable things the PA Fish and Boat Commission is doing in response, but here’s a new wrinkle. It’s in the “we can’t make this stuff up” category so here goes, from a York, PA paper:

> Vicki Blazer, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist, recently discussed her findings from researching the local intersex smallmouth bass, in which males have testicles containing immature female eggs. [Yikes.]

> Within the last 5 years, upwards of 67 percent of smallmouth bass males were intersex, according to Blazer. The fish still have sperm and seem to continue to participate in the reproduction process.

> Similar smallmouth bass issues have been seen in rivers in Delaware, Ohio, Iowa and Colorado over the last 7 years, she said.

> The fish seem to be affected by herbicides, pesticides and agricultural site runoff, as well as chemicals from personal care and hygiene products. Scientists have found traces of pharmaceutical products from Viagra to Prozac, she said.

> However, the chemicals have not gotten into the fish muscles, making fish meat still edible, Blazer said. [So I guess just the privates and brains are out?!]

Susquehanna riverkeeper Michael Helfrich said later in the article that Susquehanna smallies numbers “are down 95 percent from what we had 10 years ago. Their tails are mutilated, eyes are milky and they are dying.”

Is this true folks? That plus the “eggs in testicles” thing is profoundly disturbing – not least because some of us are drinking that very same water, just without some of the macro pollutants.

Back in the day, Ray Scott would’ve filed 100 lawsuits over this already….