New Waste Water System to Save Sick Rock Cod

Antarctic stations complete new waste water system to save sick rock cod

A million-dollar water treatment plant is being installed at one of Australia's Antarctic stations in a move to protect sea life, including the Antarctic rock cod, from being poisoned by poorly filtered sewage and grey water.

The plant, expected to be running by the end of the year, will be housed in a heated multi-function building that - subject to dark winters and fly-away winds - has so far taken five years to construct.

The treatment plant is a result of an environmental study done by a Deakin University PhD candidate Patricia Corbett, who spent the austral summer of 2012-2013 at Davis station. Using handlines and box traps, Corbett collected 120 rock cod over a range of two kilometres.

When organ samples were later sliced and out under a microscope, she found that all fish within 800 metres of the outfall exhibited significant changes at the cellular level in the gills and liver.

``The livers were also found to contain large cysts,'' says Corbett, whose findings were published Marine Pollution Bulletin , an international journal for marine environmental scientists.

Not a lot is known about the Antarctic cod's feeding range, but it's understood to hang about in one area, which makes it useful as measuring tool for pollution.

''Antarctic rockcod are good fish to assess for contamination impact because they can be exposed to contamination directly from the source, through the sediments and their diet," she said. ''Fish close to the waste water outfall had a higher incidence and severity of cellular alteration affecting their overall health.

Corbett says impacts of the waste water were detected up to four kilometres from the outfall. Sea ice made it difficult to obtain samples further afield.

Great for science, Antarctic rockcodaren'tso good for eating, they have an anti-freeze chemical in their blood - althoughthe Russian and Chinese stations are known to smoke them.

When this reporter visited David Station 34 years ago, there was a differentflavouredsmoke in theair: human waste was incineratedat that time, and huskies were stillbeing deployed. You also foundabandoneddrums and machinery.

Source: The Sidney Morning Herald

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