An in situ monitoring of Strombus vittatus vittatus in the coastal waters of Rosario, Cavite

Abstract

A useful biomarker for assessing the level of endocrine disrupting compound (EDC) contamination in bodies of water is imposex. It is an irreversible phenomenon characterized by the superimposition of male genitalia in females. The purpose of this study was to assess the occurrence of imposex among S. vittatus vittatus collected from Rosario, Cavite through morphological and histological examination. Samples of Strombus vittatus vittatus were collected from the coastal waters of Rosario, Cavite on December 2014 and January 2015, which falls under the reproductive period of the test organism. The specimens were collected at least 200 meters away from the coast on a depth of 12 to18 meters. Of the 478 specimen analyzed, 0.63% of the total samples were categorized as imposex females. Moreover, histological analysis of the gonadal structures showed that morphologically normal females exhibited spermatogenesis in their ovaries. No other gonadal anomalies were observed in male and female specimens. Findings revealed that there is a low frequency of females with masculine characters among the S. vittatus vittatus from the coastal waters of Rosario, Cavite