Does This Sound a Little Fishy to You?

It was just a small little article buried in the pages of the Parade Magazine - somewhere between "Debating the cost of capital punishment" and "Can Diet affect depression." The title to the article read, "Scientists Investigate Freaky Fish." I started to get a bit depressed myself.

The article went on to elaborate that findings by the U.S. Geological Survey indicating that one third of male smallmouth bass and about a fifth of male largemouth bass are so-called "intersex fish". Say what?

A Reproductive Biologist at the University of Maryland said there is no cause for panic just yet. Oh, really? Is he still eating fish for dinner? I wonder. Worse yet, since the fish are swimming in the same waterways that we get most of our drinking water, should this be a cause for concern?

Then, I began to reconsider the entire issue. Have we studied these fish enough to know that this "intersex" condition is something new? Perhaps they've always been that way.

Environmentalist, Katherine Baer, stated, "We see what's happening to the fish and the water they are swimming in - it's the same water we are drinking!" Is the pollution of our runoff finally taking a toll on the bass population? What about the other fish? Aren't they affected as well - why is it just the bass? You begin to question all of it, is it just another "fish" story?

I have decided that, whatever "sex" the bass choose to be or not to be - I'm still going to eat them! That's right, I am not going to concern myself with this latest sexual orientation phase that they are going through. It brings them into the latest "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" debate and I've decided not to go there either.

I don't want to know too much information about the fishes or what they have chosen for their lives however long they will be. It will not leave an aftertaste in my mouth - one way or the other.