Methylmercury in Tuna! Swordfish and others

[deefly]

Bill Moyers program NOW just aired a spot on the concern over action levels of mercury in Tuna last night. 1ppm is the current action level, althought the latest guidelines completely left earlier warnings about tuna out of the guidelines.
Some samples tested (albacore)had 5ppm. What say ye, me hearties!? Is there any reasoned discussion out here on this issue. Recommended doses of tuna were at 1 small can per week. Some cases of mercury poisoning apparently turned up in California. I guess the real concern is for pregnant women and children. :shocked:

[WP]

Was the sampling done with juvenile albacore? Was it in commercially packed cans only? Have there been any definative studies done on albacore of the Pacific NW schools? Too many questions! Since I am 56 and do not plan on having children and am male...."more albacore please!"
WP

[Martin85]

Just after me and love2fish buy lots of tuna gear at Englunds this morning (wow thats expensive gear) to start chasing long fins that stray close to shore, We may have a mercury problem?? hope not.
Your Methylmercury is a maybe :tongue: I hope

[The Bad Fish]

i eat a tuna fish sandwich everyday. salmon 2 times a week for dinner. we dont want kids and really dont plan to live forever so hey bring on that yummy tuna.

other than that twitching thing and the constant taste of tin in my mouth,,, what mercury.??

[WildHawg]

Gee...now there's an intelligent repartee :tongue: !!
I am 42, have three beautiful babies, and my wifes only 32--I hate the idea of limiting my options!
Mercury in tuna IS something we should all care about--it is indicative of the condition of our ocean.
Clearly, as WP pointed out above, there are many Q's to be answered about this research before we hit the panic button--but it is still cause for concern.
For some low income people--particularly immigrants, tuna is a large part of their protein intake (in part because canned tuna is relatively inexpensive and stores indefinitely). It is also a big part of mine, and my families protein load, as I have been blessed by the Good Lord with a "Rear end load" of the bloody ******** which have been canned and frozen!
We catch juvenilles almost exclusively. My hypothesis would be that they would accumulate mercury with age, hence smaller quantities in smaller fish.
Since they are migratory, I doubt that location of catch would make much difference.
Age of the person consuming them would certainly be an important component of comsumption level recommendations. I have three kids under 14 who love the stuff. I'd like some answers.
Thanks for bring up the issue--forewarned is forearmed.

[Sea Jypzee]

Oh well, couldn't . May as well hop back online. [img]graemlins/program.gif[/img]

My personal feeling is that it's not a huge worry for the fish we get up here. Mercury and a lot of other metals and pollutants are stored in the muscle and fat of animals. These contaminants build up with time. Since the tuna we get here in the North Pacific are juvenile, I would have doubts that they would have opportunity to accumulate that much toxins in their meat. I'd have to see hard test results on the fish we catch.

OTOH, the larg commercial fisherman who supply the likes of starkist, etc tend to fish in the south pacific where the fish are mature and much older, thus have had much more chance for the toxins to build up in their meat/fat.

[ 07-20-2003, 05:39 PM: Message edited by: Sea Jypzee ]

[lingslayer]

Yes its all really bad for you and as such I should warn you,... Send it all to me. I will get rid of it for you, before you eat it and it kills you slowly and miserably.
Jamie
PS.,... Actually I'm just jealous of those who get to catch it for themselves.

[Albacore Tuna Captain]

This is another example of news hype that comes along all the time to get people riled up and reacting to some "possible" concern. Let's see, if you drink too much water, you'll have digestion problems. If you breath too fast and hard, you'll pass out. If you drive too fast, you might crash. IF you eat too much red meat, you might develope cardiovascular diesease. If you eat too much garlic, you won't get a date. :shocked: If you do too much anything, you can have a problem!

Since fish has become such an important part of a healthy diet, there have been cases of people eating TOO much and getting elevated doses of mercury. But remember, they ate TOO MUCH! Mercury is a natural part of the enviornment and gets concentrated in the higher levels of the food chain. Large predatory fish will have elevated mercury counts and since humans are at the top of the food chain, we will be exposed to this problem if we over eat fish It all comes down to common sense. Those people who have developed mercury poisoning were eating fish 2 TO 3 TIMES A DAY! Come on! We don't need to worry about this problem! Just get out there and fish, enjoy life and let the chicken littles worry about the sky falling. As soon as this scare is over, they'll start on something else. Ozone? Green house effect? Not enough fresh water? World population? Etc.,etc.,etc.

[deefly]

I just want to say thanks to all who bothered to reply to this item. My goal was to see what some folks thought and maybe generate some interest in getting some more defined ANSWERS....
I was wondering myself, what is all the Hubbub about? According to the program (NOW on PBS)the item has only surfaced with the continued spewing of mercury into the environment (although declining)! So the issue has sort of GROWN over time. I feel we do need some answers though. ODFW and EPA where are you? the american tuna council in effect said: shhhhhh!

[SoundsFishy]

There was a very good article in Readers Digest on high mercury content in people who have high fish diets. The fish they ate were long life fish such as tuna, shark, halibut, lake trout, etc. These fish are at the top of the food chain and ingest the highest volume of mercury. There was lots of info in the article and it was very informative and factual (as readers digest tends to be). If you are interested, it was last months magazine. Good news is, eat all the salmon and steelhead you want.

[Deepslayer]

Oh well! Can't live forever! Might as well enjoy what time we have. Besides like WP I am 56 - not pregnant - and already have 10 kids!
,Ed

[Pilar]

Is the mercury from some natural source or from industrial pollution? Where can we learn more about this problem?

BTW, I must agree with Albacore Tuna Captain about the hype in the media. News is digested by the lowest common denominator of consumers at a pretty low level. This is why the 'News' consists of 5 second soundbites. Not much room in 5 seconds for the whole story.

Dunno about you but the few times a situation or subject that I was very familiar with (as in personally involved or intensively trained and experienced in the subject) was portrayed on the 'News' it was almost all wrong and the important, relevant points were almost all ignored or discredited.

If that has ever happened to you .. then you know what an eye opener it can be.

Do yourself a huge favor and go fishing ... the couch, remote, TV and the pop culture media is for those with no life. Kill your television and go catch a fish.

Think about it ... would you rather watch Vanna on 'wheel of fortune' or some morally challenged individuals on some show like 'Friends' or would you rather surround yourself with cubic miles of living seawater???

It's a no brainer if you ask me.

[ 07-21-2003, 10:35 AM: Message edited by: Pilar ]

[Phil Layer]

My buddy, Captain Latex, just got off the phone with Dave Stone, a toxicologist with the Oregon Department of Health.

According to Dave, albacore have higher concentrations of mercury than other types of tuna.

He said women of child bearing age should avoid eating albacore tuna. The rest of us should not eat albacore more than two times per week.

I am a little concerned with this information. I'm not a pregnant female but I am a male who looks pregnant. But, according to Dave, I should be good to go on the albacore dining.

I'm certainly not trying to stir the pot here but thought I should share the info from the boys who should be in the know about this stuff.

[WP]

Twice a week....thats 104 times X two people = 208 jars of tuna...just about what I figure on canning! Yum Yum!
WP