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Water Pollution and freshwater fish

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WATER POLLUTION AND
FRESHWATER FISH

NEETHU N.
(SC16B034)

CH411 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology 1
 CONTENTS

• Introduction
• Effect of water pollution on freshwater fish
• Effect on humans due to toxicity in fish
• Solutions and preventive measures

2
INTRODUCTION

3
 FRESHWATER SYSTEMS

• 3% of all water available on Earth. Salinity: <0.5 ppt

• Finite and vital to life.
• Eg: Lentic (lakes, ponds) and lotic (rivers, streams).
• Freshwater life zones: Consists of producers
(plants with roots and phytoplankton), consumers
(zooplankton, fish, and turtles), and decomposers
(bacteria and fungi).
• The producers supply O2 to the aquatic systems
through photosynthesis which are used by others.

4
FRESHWATER FISH

• Spend some or all of their life in freshwater.

• Physiologically adapted for low salinity.
• 41.24% of all fish species are freshwater.
• More than 10000 distinct freshwater fish
species exist.
• Of this >20% have become extinct or
imperilled in the recent decades. Most
threatened vertebrates.
• A major reason of this is freshwater
pollution.
5
 FRESHWATER POLLUTION

• Runoff from agricultural chemicals,

improperly treated sewage, microplastics,
toxic metals etc.
• Pollutants lower the amount of oxygen. Most
species, especially fish, die when dissolved
oxygen levels fall below 5 ppm.
• Pollutants vary the temperature, modify pH,
salinity etc.
• There are over 1500 substances that have
been listen as freshwater ecosystem
pollutants. Discharge from a Chinese fertilizer factory winds its way
6
toward the Yellow River. Courtesy: NatGeo
7
Religious rites in
the Yamuna river.
500 million
gallons of sewage
are dumped into
it everyday

8
The river got so
polluted due to
industrial
activities that it
caught fire at
least 13 times in Firemen over the
mid 20th century. Cuyahoga river,
Ohio
9
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE FISH?

10
11
CONSEQUENCES

• Eutrophication: Nutrients from pollutants promote algal blooms and

water plant growth, lowering oxygen levels for survival.
• Pharmaceutical products, especially anti-depressants causes significant
damage to fishes such as sex mutation.
• Fish is a good indicator of the environmental contamination of water
because it could be chronically exposed to highly stable compounds
present in water and could bioaccumulate by direct exposure or via the
food chain (with consequently very high levels in predator fish).
• Toxins are ingested by the fish, which are in turn ingested by humans.
12
CONSEQUENCES

• Immunosuppression: (Dunier, 1996): Studied

rainbow trout and carp for ten years. Found
that industrial effluents, heavy metals (Cu, Zn,
Mg, Mn, Hg) and pesticides such as lindane,
cause partial or total immunosuppression.
• Study on Barnoi River, Bangladesh (Galib et al,
2018): 8 years of wastewater release to the
downstream reach, fish abundance and
species richness were reduced >51% and
>41% lower respectively compared to the
pre-wastewater discharge period.
13
 CONSEQUENCES
• Reproductive behaviour (Jones and
Reynolds, 1997): Pollutant exposure
changes male-like behaviour by
masculinized females. Studies of parental levels. Concluded that these are being regularly
care have found decreased nest-building
activity, decreased offspring defence, or
changes in division of parental care
between the sexes.
• Heavy metals in the River Krishna, Maharshtra
(Ranbhare and Bakare, 2012): Found heavy metals
in fish tissues much higher than recommended
ingested by humans.
• Heavy metal exposure impairs a fish’s olfactory
ability. It cannot locate food or protect itself from
predators.
14
CONSEQUENCES

• Tumours: Carcinogens, when dumped into aquatic environments develop

tumours in them. (Kraybill et al.)
• Vertebral damage: Chlorinated hydrocarbons, pesticides and heavy metals
cause vertebral damage. This is an early sign of water pollution.
(Bengtsson et al.)
• Radioactive waste: Significantly affected haeomoglobin content, growth
rates, protein content etc. (Roushdy et al.)
• Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs): Pharmaceuticals, personal
care products etc. increasingly found in water. Conventional treatment
plants are not designed for their removal. Causes severe hormone
damage.
15
WHAT ABOUT HUMANS?

16
 BIOMAGNIFIC ATION

Increasing concentration of a
substance, such as a toxic chemical,
in the tissues of tolerant organisms
at successively higher levels in a
food chain.

17
EFFECT ON HUMANS

• Mercury: Fish used for common consumption are regularly found to have
mercury, dangerous to pregnant women even in small amounts. Also causes
neurological disorders.
• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs):
• Highly toxic industrial waste.
• Banned in US in 1979.
• Import and manufacture in India banned in 2016, usage to be banned in 2025
only.
• Accumulates in freshwater systems. Regularly ingested with fish.
• Shown to damage the circulatory, nervous, immune, endocrine, and digestive
systems. 18
EFFECT ON HUMANS

• Ciguatera poisoning:
• Caused by a microscopic algae called dinoflagellates.
• Small fish don't get sick when they eat the algae, but the toxin (called
ciguatoxin) is stored in their bodies. Biomagnification occurs.
• A case of ciguatera typically involves vomiting, diarrhea, nausea and cramps.
• At higher doses, the toxin triggers neurological symptoms, such as the
reversal of the sensations of hot and cold. Some people report dizziness or
hallucinations. The illness is rarely fatal, but symptoms can last for weeks or
even years.
19
 MI CROPL AST ICS
FI SH FROM POL L UT ED B ODI E S
WI L L H AV E MI CROPL AST ICS
I N T H E I R FL E SH . I T E NT E R S
OU R B ODI E S A ND C AU SE S
TOXI CI T Y.

Image: Microplastics ingested by a water

flea that’s three millimeters long glow
green. The irregular pieces pose a
greater threat because they can clump
and get stuck in the gut.

Courtesy: NatGeo

20
A Rainbow Runner that
had ingested 18 pieces
of plastic (2008).
Credit: Dr. Marcus
Eriksen, Gyres Institute

21
WHAT CAN WE DO?

22
SOLUTIONS AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES

• Wastewater treatment: Control toxins released to waterbodies.

• Growing plants can control surface run-offs from homes.
• Permissible limits: Should consider aquatic beings as well. Least fatal
concentration to the most sensitive stage.
• Boating: Maintain boat to prevent oil/gasoline leakage. Drain boats
when leaving water bodies to prevent transferring polluted water
from one body to another.
• Regulate tourism.
23
SOLUTIONS AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES

• Improved enforcement of pollution laws is needed along with

effective effluent treatment and better solid waste disposal
protocols.
• Threatened and endemic species of freshwater fish of biological and
socio-economic importance should be included within the National
Wildlife Protection Act.
• Environmental impact assessment of development activities must be
evaluated for their impacts to freshwater ecosystems.
• Prevent eating toxic fish by cataloguing the supply chain. Will start
in New Zealand and EU this year. 24
25
 REFERENCES

• Closs, Gerard P., Martin Krkosek, and Julian D. Olden, eds. Conservation of
freshwater fishes. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
• Muriel Dunier (1996) Water pollution and immunosuppression of freshwater fish,
Italian Journal of Zoology, 63:4, 303-309.
• Galib SM, Mohsin ABM, Parvez MT et al. (2018) Municipal wastewater can result
in a dramatic decline in freshwater fishes: a lesson from a developing country.
Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst., 419, 37.
• Jones, J.C. & Reynolds, J.D. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries (1997) 7: 463.
• V. S. Ranbhare and R.V. Bakare (2012) Effect of heavy metal pollution on
freshwater bodies, Proceedings of SWRDM – 2012. 26

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