ABOVE: Genetic material from the Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus), shown here, seems to be responsible for helping the Gulf killifish survive in polluted conditions.
ANDREW WHITEHEAD
The population of Gulf killifish in the Houston Ship Channel had been steadily declining for decades, likely a result of the toxins pouring in from industrial activity, when suddenly and mysteriously, in the 1970s, it started trending upwards. The waters hadn’t changed. Over the past six decades, the activity of several refineries and a petrochemical complex has led to large concentrations of halogenated and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (HAHs and PAHs) that are known to disrupt cardiac development—often lethally— in invertebrates.
The quantities found there should be lethal to the killifish, scientists thought, and yet, they’re surviving and even thriving. Fundulus grandis, which only grow to a maximum of seven inches long and are commonly used as baitfish, had somehow adapted and managed to live in ...
