By Janet Raloff
From Hamburg, Germany, at a meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry–Europe
Along heavily polluted regions of Germany’s Baltic coast, populations of an eel-like fish have a high incidence of potentially serious reproductive anomalies, according to a new study. Some 10 to 25 percent of male eelpout (Zoarces viviparous) are intersex, which means they have characteristics of both genders. Some males had testes containing eggs, for example. Also, microscopic examination of gonads from pregnant females pulled from those regions shows that between 45 and 80 percent of them have degenerating eggs, a condition known as atresia.