Fish Changes Colors When Detecting Pollution

Ant writes: "Say goodbye to Birkenstock sandals and woolly jumpers -- tomorrow's eco-warrior will like nothing better than swimming naked in defense of cleaner oceans. That, at least, is the hope of researchers in Singapore, who are developing a breed of fish capable of detecting water pollutants by changing color."

Comments

Water testing

[Guppy]

Just wanted to add a comment on the use of fish in testing water. When discharging waste water, whether from municipal or industrial treatment plants, there are requirements that certain types of tests be performed.

These assays are designed to measure some specific parameter or contaminant in the water, using the usual techniques of analytical chemistry.

However, after testing for specific contaminants, some facilities will then do a "canary in a coal mine" assay, rearing fish in the water to check for overall health. The species used might vary, but will usually be commercially available fish that can breed easily in captivity, so many kinds of common aquarium fish are used, of which the zebrafish is one example. Another bonus of using zebrafish is that the this species of fish is considered a "standard" laboratory animal, like rats and mice, and so the genetics and physiology of the fish has been studied in detail.

Rather than releasing these fish into the wild, I got the impression that these genetically engineered fish would be used to augment this last type of testing in the laboratory, since the fluorescent indicators could be linked to more specific indicators of some aspect of the fish's health.