Free Sex Change? Move To Idaho - Brief Article

Ecologist, The, March, 2001

The Columbia river is so polluted, its fish are changing sex.

Here's a thought for any men trapped in women's bodies: move to the Columbia River and take a daily bath in its potent waters.

Here's the story: zoologist James Nagler from the University of Idaho went fishing. Being a zoologist, he decided to take a closer look at his catch. Guess what he found: 84 per cent of the now obviously female salmon had been male at birth. The fish could lay eggs and looked like 'real female' salmon. They had however, a trait that only males have; they had one X and one Y chromosome. Nagler believes that this might be one of the reasons why the salmon stocks in the Columbia River are dwindling so fast.

Although the Columbia river flows through the pollution range of the Hanford Nuclear reactor, Nagler thinks that the likely cause for the sex change lies in the substantial rise in water temperature which in turn is caused by the dams along the river.

At any rate, an 84 per cent success rate has to be worth a try.