Welcome to my Blog here at Life in Italy!
I plan on covering alot of ground on this blog - from Italian history, traditions, food and wine, travel stories, Italian-American heritage, to whatever happens to be on my mind.
I plan on covering alot of ground on this blog - from Italian history, traditions, food and wine, travel stories, Italian-American heritage, to whatever happens to be on my mind.
Sicily's Sex-Changed Snails
Posted 02-21-2009 at 03:14 PM by justindemetri
You may have never heard of the Murex, but I'm sure you have heard of it's most famous product: The purple dye of the Phoenecians that colored the royal robes of the ancient world were made from this seasnail.
Now, due to the continued use of a banned anti-fouling paint, the Sicilian Murex is facing a major environmental threat - chemicals are turning them all into males.
I'm no stranger to anti-fouling paint. The famous red copper paint used on boat hulls since the 1860's was invented across the harbor from my mother's house in Gloucester.
While this stuff is essential to marine work, these paints, especially the newer varieties that replace copper with chemicals, are causing problems on the seabed. And once these chemicals are dredged up from the substrate it can cause human related health problems as well.
Now, due to the continued use of a banned anti-fouling paint, the Sicilian Murex is facing a major environmental threat - chemicals are turning them all into males.
I'm no stranger to anti-fouling paint. The famous red copper paint used on boat hulls since the 1860's was invented across the harbor from my mother's house in Gloucester.
While this stuff is essential to marine work, these paints, especially the newer varieties that replace copper with chemicals, are causing problems on the seabed. And once these chemicals are dredged up from the substrate it can cause human related health problems as well.
Quote:
MED MOLLUSCS IN SEX-CHANGE THREAT
(ANSA) - Rome, February 20 - The murex, one of Sicily`s
best-loved shell-fish, is facing extinction because of
widespread sex changes caused by compounds in paints
protecting the hulls of boats, environmentalists warn.
The alarm was launched by Italy`s premier marine
research institute, the Institute for Environmental
Protection and Research (ISPRA, formerly known as ICRAM),
after it carried out tests in Sicilian coastal waters and
compared them with uncontaminated waters farther out.
The results show that the females of three species of
murex have almost completely changed sex around the coasts
while the gender pattern remains intact on the unsullied
seabeds.
ISPRA experts have identified the culprit as TBT, a
so-called organotin which causes female murexes to become
males.
TBT is one of the prime ingredients of anti-fouling
paints, used to coat the bottom of ships to prevent sea life
such as algae and molluscs from attaching themselves to hulls
- thereby slowing ships and increasing fuel consumption.
In 2001 the International Maritime Organisation
banned TBT and other harmful organotins but they have still
not been phased out and the sex lives of the molluscs are
still at risk.
``The situation will only be improved by getting rid of
the paints and dredging and cleaning the bottom of
harbours,`` said ISPRA`s Franco Andaloro.
Andaloro said studies had shown the murexes were also
being turned into males by the seabed sludge they graze on.
The gender-bending TBT seeps into the water and builds
up on harbour beds, Andoloro said.
The exact mechanism behind the transexual molluscs is
still being studied.
A handful of Italian researchers are at the cutting edge.
One of them, Antonio Terlizzi of Lecce University,
explained that TBT boosts the production of testosterone in
the female murexes, making them sterile and eventually
turning them into males.
``It`s a little bit like all those women shot-putters
with moustaches you used to see a few years ago,`` he said.
According to the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the problem
could become wider, with populations of murexes under threat
of sex changes all around the Italian coast.
The murex, a type of sea snail, is a spiny shelled
marine gastropod of the genus `Murex`, formerly used as a
source of the dye Tyrian purple.
It is one of the most characteristic sights on
shell-fish stalls in Palermo, the Sicilian capital.
So far the possible health effects on people who eat the
transgender snails have not been investigated.
In the biodiversity study, conducted with the help of
the University of Malta, ISPRA also found that the breakdown
of temperature `barriers` due to global warming has led to an
increasing influx of non-native fish from both the Atlantic
and the Red Sea.
There are now ten Atlantic species and 12 Red Sea ones
in the Sicilian Channel.
In the whole of the Mediterranean, ISPRA said, 110
exotic fish can now be found, equal to 15% of the fish
population.
Native species are also threatened by sewage containing
pesticides and DDT which was banned several years ago but is
still found coming out of sewage pipes in some areas,
especially Malta.
(ANSA) - Rome, February 20 - The murex, one of Sicily`s
best-loved shell-fish, is facing extinction because of
widespread sex changes caused by compounds in paints
protecting the hulls of boats, environmentalists warn.
The alarm was launched by Italy`s premier marine
research institute, the Institute for Environmental
Protection and Research (ISPRA, formerly known as ICRAM),
after it carried out tests in Sicilian coastal waters and
compared them with uncontaminated waters farther out.
The results show that the females of three species of
murex have almost completely changed sex around the coasts
while the gender pattern remains intact on the unsullied
seabeds.
ISPRA experts have identified the culprit as TBT, a
so-called organotin which causes female murexes to become
males.
TBT is one of the prime ingredients of anti-fouling
paints, used to coat the bottom of ships to prevent sea life
such as algae and molluscs from attaching themselves to hulls
- thereby slowing ships and increasing fuel consumption.
In 2001 the International Maritime Organisation
banned TBT and other harmful organotins but they have still
not been phased out and the sex lives of the molluscs are
still at risk.
``The situation will only be improved by getting rid of
the paints and dredging and cleaning the bottom of
harbours,`` said ISPRA`s Franco Andaloro.
Andaloro said studies had shown the murexes were also
being turned into males by the seabed sludge they graze on.
The gender-bending TBT seeps into the water and builds
up on harbour beds, Andoloro said.
The exact mechanism behind the transexual molluscs is
still being studied.
A handful of Italian researchers are at the cutting edge.
One of them, Antonio Terlizzi of Lecce University,
explained that TBT boosts the production of testosterone in
the female murexes, making them sterile and eventually
turning them into males.
``It`s a little bit like all those women shot-putters
with moustaches you used to see a few years ago,`` he said.
According to the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the problem
could become wider, with populations of murexes under threat
of sex changes all around the Italian coast.
The murex, a type of sea snail, is a spiny shelled
marine gastropod of the genus `Murex`, formerly used as a
source of the dye Tyrian purple.
It is one of the most characteristic sights on
shell-fish stalls in Palermo, the Sicilian capital.
So far the possible health effects on people who eat the
transgender snails have not been investigated.
In the biodiversity study, conducted with the help of
the University of Malta, ISPRA also found that the breakdown
of temperature `barriers` due to global warming has led to an
increasing influx of non-native fish from both the Atlantic
and the Red Sea.
There are now ten Atlantic species and 12 Red Sea ones
in the Sicilian Channel.
In the whole of the Mediterranean, ISPRA said, 110
exotic fish can now be found, equal to 15% of the fish
population.
Native species are also threatened by sewage containing
pesticides and DDT which was banned several years ago but is
still found coming out of sewage pipes in some areas,
especially Malta.
Total Comments 2
Comments
-
Justin, how in the heck can you tell if a snail is male or female? Maybe I don't want to know.Posted 02-24-2009 at 04:05 PM by Danno
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You gotta look under the shell :-)Posted 02-24-2009 at 08:33 PM by justindemetri
