Pharmaceutical pollution alters migration behavior in salmon, study shows

The question of how salmon is affected by involuntary use of pharmaceutical drugs has been seriously asked by an international group of scientists studying the pollution of water bodies with drugs. To understand how psychoactive substances released into the water can affect fish, researchers watched salmon migrate from the Swedish Dalälven River to the Baltic for two years. The authors' conclusions are disappointing: drug pollution can not only …

Salmon are swimming faster due to painkillers dumped into rivers: study

Wild salmon are swimming quicker due to painkillers and other drugs dumped in rivers and the sea, reveals new research.

Drug pollution alters salmon migration

Study reveals commonly detected environmental levels of clobazam -- a medication often prescribed for sleep disorders -- increased the river-to-sea migration success of juvenile salmon in the wild. The research team employed slow-release pharmaceutical implants and animal-tracking transmitters to monitor how exposure to clobazam and the opioid painkiller tramadol -- another common pharmaceutical pollutant -- affected the behaviour and migration …

Biosecurity warnings ignored by the Tasmanian salmon industry

Despite repeated warnings from scientists, the Tasmanian salmon industry has been run with exemptions to biosecurity regulation and under a regime that was weakened at its urging.

Relief from drought, help for migrating salmon

Unexpected relief for the Pacific Northwest’s drought has come from short-term cooler, wetter conditions, which also helped migrating salmon, according to the just-release Pacific Northwest Water Year Impacts Assessment.

Salmon on benzos warn of pharmaceutical pollution's impacts

A juvenile Atlantic salmon. Credit: Jörgen Wiklund While modern medicine allows us to manage or cure previously untreatable diseases and conditions, pharmaceuticals and their metabolites have untold consequences when they make their way into the environment. “Pharmaceutical pollutants are an emerging global issue, with over 900 different substances having now been detected in waterways around the world,” says Dr Marcus Michelangeli of Griffith U…