The Weekly Newsmagazine of Science Volume 155, Number 19 (May 8,
1999) |<<Back to Contents| By J. Raloff Canadian scientists have
identified the likely culprit behind some historic, regional
declines in Atlantic salmon. The researchers find that a near-
ubiquitous water pollutant can render young, migrating fish
unable to survive a life at sea. Heavy, late-spring spraying of
forests with a pesticide laced with nonylphenol during the 1970s
and '80s was the clue that led the biologists to unmask that
chemical's role in the transitory decline of salmon in East
Canada. Though these sprays have ended, concentrations of
nonylphenols in forest runoff then were comparable to those in
the effluent of some pulp mills, industrial facilities, and
sewage-treatment plants today. Downstream of such areas, the
scientists argue, salmon and other migratory fish may still be
at risk. Nonylphenols are surfactants used in products from
pesticides to dishwashing detergents, cosmetics, plastics, and
spermicides. Because waste-treatm