Ag pesticides put salmon at risk

SEATTLE, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Agricultural pesticides are putting Canadian and U.S. Pacific salmon stocks at risk of extinction, U.S. fisheries experts warn.

The National Marine Fisheries Service said the pesticides chloripyrifos, diazinon and malathion are interfering with the ability of salmon to thrive and reproduce, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Wednesday.

The study said the continued use of the pesticides will result in the reduced viability of all threatened salmon populations.

"These are pesticides that EPA has swept under the rug for years," Joshua Osborne-Klein, a lawyer representing the Northwest Coalition For Alternatives to Pesticides, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources, told the newspaper. "These are three that stood out as the nastiest of the (pesticides) that are still in widespread use."