Modeling the direct and indirect effects of pollutants on the survival of fish in water bodies

Several sources of water pollution are causing negative consequences to marine life. The organisms that are more affected are fishes and marine mammals since they are at the top of the food chain. They are directly exposed to high levels of toxins in water and/or they feed on other fishes that are contaminated. Unfortunately, the main cause of the contaminations, and thus of the fish deaths, come from human activities, such as industry, agriculture, municipal wastewater and solid wastes. The present study is concerned with the effect of organic and inorganic pollutants on the survival of fish in water bodies. We introduce a nonlinear mathematical model by considering five interacting variables; organic pollutants, inorganic pollutants, bacteria, dissolved oxygen and fish in the water body. The model is analyzed using the stability theory of differential equations and to confirm the analytical findings, numerical simulations are performed. Our results suggest that to maintain water quality and to save fish life, the global community has to limit the release of organic and inorganic pollutants into the aquatic system.