Mood- altering drugs found in brains of Great Lakes fish
Researchers say rising use a threat to biodiversity
A new study might depress anyone concerned with Great Lakes water quality.
Antidepressant drugs, making their way through an increasing number of people’s bodies, getting excreted in small amounts into their toilets and moving through the wastewater treatment process to lakes and rivers, are being found in Great Lakes fish species’ brains, research by the University of Buffalo has found.
Researchers detected high concentrations of both the active ingredients and metabolites — byproducts of the parent drug — of popular antidepressant pharmaceuticals including Zoloft, Prozac, Celexa and Sarafem in the brains of fish caught in the Niagara River, which connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
Affected species included smallmouth and largemouth bass, rudd, rock bass, white bass, white and yellow perch, walleye, bowfin and steelhead. While the concentrations aren’t potentially harmful to humans eating the fish, they are problematic, said University of Buffalo chemistry professor Diana Aga, the lead author of the study published on Aug. 16 in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
“It is a threat to biodiversity, and we should be very concerned,” she said.
Research has shown antidepressants create “suicidal shrimp” that swim toward light instead of away from it, making them vulnerable to predators, Aga said.
“Other research teams have shown that antidepressants can affect the feeding behavior of fish, or their survival instincts,” Aga said. “Some fish won’t acknowledge the presence of predators as much.”
That has the potential to affect ecological balances in the Great Lakes, already under siege from invasive species. It also could disrupt sport fishing, worth billions to Michigan.