Are endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the aquatic environment impacting fish populations?
The authors of this journal article address the following questions from information in the current literature: 1) Can endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the aquatic environment have the ability to impact the reproductive health and survival of various fish species, and 2) Are EDCs actually impacting the reproductive health and sustainability of indigenous fish populations? The authors suggest that laboratory experiment data support the hypothesis that EDCs can impact the reproductive health of fish species, but that evidence that EDCs are impacting the reproductive health and sustainability of indigenous fish populations is less convincing. The scarcity of evidence linking impacts of environmental EDCs with changes in reproductive success of fish populations may reflect a critical need for a dependable method to assess reproduction of fish in situ. The authors believe more studies are needed to investigate whether fish populations routinely exposed to EDCs in situ are experienci
