Empty nets and few species – environmental hormones are believed responsible for the diminishing numbers of fish. How damaging are these substances really, though? Studies that depict a complete picture of the lives of fish provide clues. You cannot see, smell, or taste them – and yet, environmental hormones are components of many materials and products. They can be found for example in colorants and dyes, pesticides, cosmetics, plastics, and in pharmaceuticals. Environmental hormones are molecules that behave like hormones, because they resemble them in their structure. It has been suspected that the substances getting into an organism via the air, the skin, through foodstuffs, and through medications influence the human reproductive system and cause a reduction in the quality of spermatozoa, with an associated drop in male fertility. The animal world is affected as well. In addition to other factors, environmental hormones are believed responsible for the reduction in fish populations. Life cycle studies with freshwater fish Experts and scientists have been in disagreement for over two decades about whether fish stocks and amphibian populations are actually threatened by any stress from hormonally active substances in bodies of water, because the effects of the environmental hormones actually remain insufficiently
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