by Donna Lisenby / EcoWatch
Two abnormal and one normal bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) from Lake Sutton. The two on top had the craniofacial deformity called “pugnose” in which the mouth and jaws extend beyond the head while the head and mouth are compressed or shortened. A significant “under bite” is created as a result of a malformed cranial skeletal structure and gill cover. The bottom individual is normal.
Will a death toll of 900,000 be the body count it takes for the public to finally say enough, already? Or will it also take another set of grisly photographs of maimed bodies, deformed skulls, misshapen mouths and twisted spines?
The breaking news out of Wilmington, NC today has both.
Unfortunately, this latest episode is not a single, isolated incident. It is but the latest attack by a serial killer that has taken thousands of lives all across the country, on what has become a nearly 30-year killing spree. The culprit is notorious; the whodunit was solved decades ago. Yet, authorities allow the mayhem to go on, so the death and destruction continues unabated.
A new study confirms that Duke Energy’s toxic coal ash pollution is killing more than 900,000 fish and deforming thousands more each year in Lake Sutton, a popular fishing destination just outside of Wilmington, NC. Dr. Dennis Lemly, Research Associate Professor of Biology at Wake Forest University and a leading expert on selenium poisoning conducted the study. He analyzed more than 1,400 fish from the lake and found disturbing mutations of the heads, mouths, spines and tails in several species of fish. Here are just seven of the 18 photos of deformed fish that were included in the study report.
See the rest of the pictures and read the rest of the article on EcoWatch.
The head and mouth of a “pugnose” bluegill from Lake Sutton compared to a normal one.
A close up view of the heads on the deformed and normal fish from the photo above. Note the extremely undersized mouth and gaping, deformed gill cover. The mouth is so small it made it difficult for the young fish to eat larger food.