Today there is not a single person who does not know who these mutants are. Even the children have heard about these creatures. Some speak of them with irony, others with caution, some believe in their existence, while others are skeptical. Let's try to figure out if the mutants actually exist, and if they exist, then where are they.
Where did the mutant fish come from in our world?
The Internet and the media have increasingly begun to replete with reports that in different parts of the world people are discovering creatures whose appearance differs from normal and familiar to us. Ugly animals, mutant fish, people with genetic abnormalities appear and fill our planet. Today, no one is surprised by the existence of the ugly inhabitants of the Earth. A special boom of their appearance occurred after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Then the first information began to arise that mutant fish were found in the reservoirs of cities located in the area of the nuclear power plant. Pripyat is one of such settlements, the level of radiation in which led to the modification of living organisms.
Fish mutation
The most dangerous of the mutations for nature is genetic. Because even after the elimination or disappearance of the factors that caused it, it will spread by inheritance. So, in the natural reservoirs of our country, fish larvae are often found with two mouths, with three eyes, with two heads and even without internal organs. Typically, such mutant fish do not live to a mature state. But there are viable ones among them, despite the deviations that they have.
In the Volga river basin, for example, there are more than 50 fish mutations. In these individuals, violations in the pigmentation of scales and serious changes in blood were found. And in the Moscow River, external deformities and diseases of some species of fish reach 100%.
Causes and types of mutations in fish
Ichthyologists from different countries, worried about this situation, studied fish mutations in the basins of various rivers and came to the conclusion that the modifications occur not only due to chemical influences. Adverse biological effects can also be causes of mutations in the inhabitants of water bodies. For example, the appearance of extra fins in fish is associated with damage to eggs by parasitic microorganisms.
What abnormalities in fish are detected during a mutation?
Genetics have established such a thing as phenodeviants, which means creatures with a deviation from the normal appearance.
Phenodeviants are distinguished by numerous displacements of the scales, deformation and pug-shaped cranial bones, frequent deformities of the fins and their absence, reduction and underdevelopment of the gill cover, fusion of the vertebrae, and disturbances in the structure of internal organs.
So, scary creatures that have the head of pink salmon, the jaw of a shark and the body of an eel swim near the coast of Japan. Scientists have suggested that these mutant fish appeared as a result of exposure to radiation from the destroyed Fukushima.
Chernobyl finds
In artificial reservoirs, phenodeviants appear as a result of closely related crosses. If the number of such individuals increases in the natural environment, this is due to the presence of teratogenic and mutagenic substances in the rivers.
For example, mutant fish in Chernobyl have such a deviation as curvature of the spine. This is due to the effects of radiation and poisons on the body. Adult individuals with such deformities come across in Pripyat quite often.
Unexpected and terrible finds are made by people in the reservoirs of the "exclusion zone" and other cities. These are freak fish of enormous size, with a variety of growths and anomalies. These ugly creatures began to grow into myths and stories. And someone specifically tells about the terrible monsters that live in Chernobyl to intimidate us.
Ecological catastrophy
An interesting and unexpected was the catch of fishermen in the Rostov region. In Salt Lake, they caught a giant piranha weighing more than 2 kg. As an inhabitant of the rivers of South America fell into the Russian lake, it remained a mystery. However, experts suggested that toothy fish were released from the aquarium, and they were raised in captivity. But whether they are telling the truth or in this way calming the inhabitants, one can only guess. Perhaps they are right. But if the reason for the appearance of piranha is a mutation, then this is one of the signs of impending danger for the inhabitants of the Earth.
Scientists say that fish anomalies are an occasion to think, because the person himself can become the next. Water pollution by radiation, mutagenic substances and chemical emissions is the beginning of an environmental disaster. And only reasonable human activities related to water purification can save us from serious danger and consequences. Chernobyl mutant fish make us worry and make a decision in time to eliminate this problem.