ANOMALIES IN SCULPINS (MYOXOCEPHALUS SPP) SAMPLED NEAR A PULP AND PAPER-MILL

This study investigated anomalies in two species of benthic sculpins (Myoxocephalus octodecemspinosus and M. scorpius) inhabiting a marine inlet in Newfoundland, Canada, where effluent from a pulp and paper mill is discharged and from two reference sites. Condition factor of both species of sculpins from the polluted and a reference site was similar. Some differences in parasite fauna were observed. Tissues from reference fish, obtained from two uncontaminated sites for comparison, were normal. Impaired vision, fin and tail necrosis, hyperplasia of the gill epithelium, depletion of energy reserves in the liver, and multifocal hemosiderosis in the spleen were observed primarily in M. octodecemspinosus captured near the paper mill. These stress-associated lesions, probably caused by undetermined xenobiotics, appear to be associated with the sediment.