Cuttlefish Antidepressants

Antidepressants and their effect on cuttlefish.

Research into the effect that man-made material can have on the marine environment has only just begun to scrap the surface, many chemicals and physical particles are entering this environment at an alarming rate. Pharmaceuticals are a group of chemicals that enter the water system through waste water effluent, these particles are too small for the current filters on sewage works to eradicate and due to the increasing use of pharmaceuticals for many countries throughout the world the coastal environment is important to analysis before changes within the biology is irreversible. With an increasing concern over the amount of pharmaceuticals being prescribed and consumed the interest in this field of study has increased throughout the last decade. Fluoxetine is widely distributed antidepressant and mood stabiliser with the commercial name of prozac and is a top 100 prescribed drug in the USA and UK. With the predicted increase in prescription of this pharmaceutical around the world there has been an increased interest in the effect it has on the non-target aquatic organisms.

The cuttlefish were exposed to the concentrations of 1ng/L and 100ng/L 15 days before hatching and for two weeks after to determine the effect of living within this stressful environment. Behaviour was monitored through the use of the ability for the cuttlefish to camouflage on uniform and patterned sands such as a checkerboard design and also the locomotion of the organism, such as the behaviour for the cuttlefish to dig in the sand. These are good indicators of behaviour as an undesired effect would increase the likelihood of the young cuttlefish being vulnerable to