At a bar, intoxicated people may fall victim to the notorious “beer goggles” effect. Now, researchers have discovered that in the fish world, pollution can have the same effect as a six-pack of Heineken.
Scientists already know that female African cichlids are partially blind, and have evolved into a new species over the past 30 years. The cichlids in Lake Victoria’s polluted waters are vanishing, causing “the largest human-witnessed mass extinction of vertebrates.” And now, pollution is also causing closely-related species of cichlids to interbreed, all because they can’t see each other.
