TOMCOD MUTATION KEY TO SURVIVAL

A newly isolated mutation has helped a species of bottom-feeding fish called the tomcod survive Hudson River pollution.

The mutation is naturally occurring, but Dr. Isaac Wirgin, of NYU, said it's what protects the tomcod from toxic PCBs.

"If it didn't exist, they probably wouldn't survive because the levels of exposures that they have and the amount they accumulate would be sufficiently high to kill them," Wirgin said. WNYC