SECTION 16 



REGISTRATION OF PESTICIDES: 

 CONSIDERATIONS IN CONDUCTING AQUATIC TOXICITY TESTS 



Richard A. Schoettger 



Reports of the U.S. Tariff Commission show that production of synthetic 

 organic chemicals amounts to billions of pounds per year. Pesticides alone 

 account for more than 1 billion pounds, of which about half are insecti- 

 cides and the remainder are herbicides, fungicides, and other control chemi- 

 cals (Fowler and Mahan, 1973). Extensive use of persistent pesticides for 

 over a quarter-century, often without due concern for direct and indirect 

 contamination of fish and wildlife habitats, has resulted in our unwitting 

 use of these resources as biologic indicators of contamination (Johnson, 

 1968; Henderson, Johnson, and Inglis, 1969; Katz et al . , 1970, 1971, 1972; 

 Day, 1973; McKim et al., 1973, 1974). These fish and wildlife resources 

 are valued at more than $7 billion per year (U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service, 1972). The lethal effects of pesticide spills, careless applica- 

 tions, and point and non-point discharges have been relatively obvious for 

 years, but not the subliminal effect of sublethal concentrations. Recent 

 improvements in analytical technology and nationwide sampling by national 

 monitoring activities have revealed a broad array of pesticide and 

 industrial chemical residues in various kinds of fish and wildlife and 

 their habitat. These findings show that trace quantities of pesticides can 

 be mobile and accumulative in aquatic ecosystems. With new, multidiscipli- 

 nary research approaches, scientists are now beginning to demonstrate what 

 they suspected for years—that sublethal concentrations of pesticides and 

 other contaminants may have subtle and adverse effects on basic life and be- 

 havioral processes of fish and wildlife. The scope of these processes 

 determines an organism's ability to cope with continuous competition and 

 natural stresses. Chemical contaminants are added stresses to which fish 

 may or may not be able to adjust, and populations may be subtly modified or 

 attenuated. Therefore the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must anticipate 

 to the best of its ability, through its own research and in cooperation 

 with other agencies and institutions, the ecological implications of known, 

 suspected, or potential chemical contaminants. 



In view of documented effects of pesticides on fish and other aquatic 

 life and the apparently ubiquitous distribution of certain pesticide resi- 

 dues in aquatic habitats, it seems reasonable to assume that past research 

 requirements for pesticides have not been adequate to anticipate effects on 

 these resources. In 1970-71 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reorganized 

 and integrated scientific disciplines at the Fish-Pesticide Research Labora- 



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