Mutations found in sea life along US West Coast
PHOTOS: Mutations found in sea life along US West Coast — Deformed spines, brains, hearts, eyes reported by officials — Malformations include extra brain lobes, hunchbacks, parts of face missing, unusual limbs
NOAA Fisheries, Apr 2, 2015 (emphasis added): Here is an
unusual sea star collected during last year’s bottom trawl
survey on the chartered West Coast fishing vessel… (Top
Comment: Hmm… mutation, clearly; etiology is – what?)
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium – Local Environmental Observer, Jun 21, 2015: Deformed fish – Tununak, AK… I caught a halibut with… part of its nose and upper lip part appears missing… [Dr. Ted Meyers, State Fish Pathologist said] “The abnormality appears to be an upper and lower jaw deformity, and possibly a deformity of the eyes… The right eye is sunken and has thickened peri-orbital tissue, likely another developmental anomaly. Most likely the jaw deformity is congenital, possibly occurring during embryogenesis… Eye deformities are usually congenital as well.”
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium – Local Environmental Observer, Feb 27, 2015: Deformed fish – Toksook Bay, AK… This is blackfish that has either a growth or dislocation on the left side of the fish. It looks more like a growth to me. There’s small tannish colored on top of the bump. On top of the head is white-ish colored streak… LEO Comment: … this is probably not cause for concern, although certainly worth posting as a LEO observation. If however, you observe several fish with the same condition, we begin to question if there is some kind of illness or environmental cause that would require further investigation… [Dr. Ted Meyers said] “This fish looks like a developmental deformity… There could be a neoplastic growth underneath the tissues causing the linear deviation but more likely there was either a defect during embryogenesis or a traumatic injury early after hatching…”
The Marine Mammal Center, Apr 2012: A modern day health problem! Congenital defects in elephant seals, such as spinal deformities and cleft palates… [A]n elephant seal pup, has... a deformity, or birth defect, which gives her a “hunchback”… why are elephant seals so prone to birth defects? The answer may lie with this pinniped’s brush with near extinction hundreds of years ago… potentially causing the present-day problems of congenital defects such as cleft palates, spinal deformities and heart, brain and eye deformities… researchers plan on comparing the spines of these and other recent patients…
SF Chronicle, Apr 19, 2012: With her dewy brown eyes, velvety fur and glossy whiskers, TVA is a lovely specimen of an elephant seal. Except for the hunchback. The month-old pinniped [was] rescued in… Marin County… [She] has an extra vertebra in her spine, bulging into a pronounced hump… Several of her compatriots at the center also have birth defects – cleft palates, scoliosis, extra brain lobes… Scientists are seeing signs of weakened physiologies – specifically, emaciation – this spring at the Marine Mammal Center. (CAPTION: … Many of the baby elephant seals that turn up at the Center all have the same defect – curvature of the spine.)
