Research Product

Pesticides entering the marine environment can either enhance man's health and welfare by controlling noxious insects and predators of desirable seafood or can adversely affect man in other ways. Many of the pesticides are relatively insoluble in water but highly soluble in fat and, therefore, accumulate in the tissues of marine organisms. Some of these organisms are used by man as seafood and can act as vestors, transmitting the pesticides or their metabolites from the aquatic environment to man. Instances have occurred in the past in which seafood organisms have accumulated amounts of pesticides that exceed Food and Drug Administration's guideline values; therefore, the seafood products were seized before reaching the market. Pesticides can also adversely affect the organisms in which they occur by causing death, reproductive failure and aberrant behavior. Deterioration of a portion of man's environment should alert us to possible deterioration of man's health because a more-than-casual relationship may exist between adverse effects of environmental chemicals on aquatic organisms and effects of these chemicals on man. The purpose of this paper is to present a brief overview of the bioaccumulation and effects of pesticides on marine organisms and to explore possible relationships between these effects and human welfare.