SINDERMANN: POLLUTION-ASSOCIATED DKSEASES AND ABNORMALITIES 



physiological and behavioral disorders, which 

 might be included in a broad definition of disease. 

 Finally, in these introductory comments, it 

 should be noted that to make any firm association 

 of a disease with environmental pollution there 

 are several basic requirements: 1) knowledge of 

 the history of occurrence of the disease in a par- 

 ticular species in the geographic area of concern; 

 2) knowledge of the history of occurrence and 

 levels of particular pollutants in that area; 3) a 

 review of the biology, life history, and occurrence 

 of the disease in other areas, in other species, and 

 under different environmental conditions; 4) an 

 intensive baseline survey of the current disease 

 and pollution situation, with attention to statisti- 

 cal reliability of sampling; 5) laboratory and field 

 experimentation with the principal objective of 

 reproducing the disease by exposure to known 

 levels of contaminants; and 6) resurveys of the 

 disease and pollution levels over several years, 

 looking for changes or trends. As will become ap- 

 parent in this paper, these requirements have 

 been fully satisfied for few if any of the diseases 

 discussed. 



DISEASES CAUSED BY 



CONTAMINANT STRESS AND 



RELATED FACULTATIVE PATHOGENS 



Fin Erosion 



Probably the best known but least understood 

 disease offish from polluted waters is a nonspecific 

 condition known as "fin rot" or "fin erosion" (Fig- 

 ures 1, 2), a syndrome which seems rather clearly 

 associated with degraded estuarine or coastal en- 

 vironments. Fin rot has been reported from the 

 New York Bight (Mahoney et al. 1973; Ziskowski 

 and Murchelano 1975; Murchelano 1975), 

 California (Young 1964; Southern California 

 Coastal Water Research Project-"^; Mearns and 

 Sherwood 1974), Puget Sound (Wellings et al. 

 1976), Biscayne Bay and Escambia Bay in Florida 

 (Couch 1974a; Sindermannetal. 1978), the Gulf of 

 Mexico ( Overstreet and Howse 1977 ), the Irish Sea 

 (Perkins et al. 1972), and the Japanese coast 

 (Nakai et al. 1973). 



Fin rot seems to occur in at least two types: one 



^Southern California Coastal Water Research Proj- 

 ect. 1973. The ecology of the Southern California Bight: Im- 

 plications for water quality management. Ref. No. SCCWRP 

 TR 104, El Segundo, Calif. 



in bottom fish, where damage to fins seems site- 

 specific and related to direct contact with con- 

 taminated sediments, and another in pelagic 

 nearshore species, characterized by more 

 generalized erosion, but with predominant in- 

 volvement of the caudal fin. 



Recent quantitative surveys along the Middle At- 

 lantic coast have disclosed high prevalence (up to 

 38*^ ) of fin rot in samples of trawled marine fishes 

 from the New York Bight. Thus far, 22 affected 

 species have been found. While bacteria of the 

 genera Vibrio, Aeromonas, and Pseudomonas 

 were frequently isolated from abnormal fish, a 

 definite bacterial etiology has not been estab- 

 lished. Fin rot disease was significantly more 

 abundant in the New York Bight Apex, the area of 

 greatest environmental damage, than in any com- 

 parable coastal area from Block Island, R.I., to 

 Cape Hatteras, N.C. (Murchelano and Ziskowski 

 1976). An association between high fin rot preva- 

 lence and high coliform counts in sediments is 

 emerging (Mahoney et al. 1973), as is an associa- 

 tion between high fin rot prevalences and high 

 heavy metal levels in sediments (Carmody et al. 

 1973). The disease signs can be produced experi- 

 mentally by exposure offish to polluted sediments. 

 Fin erosion has also been observed in striped bass, 

 Morone saxatilis, overwintering in heated efflu- 

 ents of power plants in the Middle Atlantic States. 



The histopathology of fin erosion in winter 

 flounder, Pseudopleuronectes americanus, from 

 the New York Bight was examined by Murchelano 

 (1975). Significant descriptive findings were 

 epidermal hyperplasia accompanied by dermal 

 fibrosis, hyperemia, and hemorrhage. Bacterial in- 

 fections were not found, nor was pronounced in- 

 flammatory response. However, reference was 

 made to acute fin lesions seen in summer flounder, 

 Paralichthys dentatus, in which bacteria were 

 readily demonstrable. The absence of pronounced 

 inflammatory response in either species of floun- 

 der led Murchelano to suggest that the necrotic 

 process is not primarily microbial and that ac- 

 tivities of a chemical irritant may be involved. 



Another histopathological and bacteriological 

 study of fin rot in winter flounder from Narragan- 

 sett Bay, R.I., by Levin et al. (1972) described 

 acute ulcerative lesions as well as fln erosion, 

 thought to be produced by Vibrio anguillarum. 

 Acute inflammatory response was observed, and 

 ulcerations were reproduced in fish exposed ex- 

 perimentally to V . anguillarum isolates. It is pos- 

 sible that several poorly defined disease entities or 



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