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Mercury in Seafood - Is It Still Safe To Eat Fish
Mercury in Seafood - Is It Still Safe To Eat Fish
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Day in Health
by Lisa Collier Cool
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Scary news for seafood lovers: Not only do 84 percent of the worlds fish contain potentially unsafe levels of mercury, but eating certain types of seafood
frequently may be particularly risky, troubling new research suggests. Scientists have also solved a longstanding mystery: why deep-water fish, such as swordfish and bigeye tuna, contain more mercury than marine life that feeds near the oceans surface, such as flying fish and yellowfin tuna. In research published earlier this year in Nature Geoscience, scientists from University of Michigan and University of Hawaii report that up to 80 percent of methylmercurythe highly toxic form of this heavy metalis found deep in the ocean, which is why deep-feeding fish have the highest levels.
We knew this was true, but we didnt know why, adds Popp, professor of geology and geophysics at University of Hawaii at Manoa. In the new study, the team used a mass spectrometer to analyze mercury in six predatory species and three species of prey fish, caught in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. By analyzing the chemical signatures of methylmercury in the fish, the researchers discovered that the toxin travel thousands of miles through the air from Asian countries, where coal-burning power plants spew out mercury pollution. Sunlight helps break down mercury pollution near the ocean surface, explaining why fish that feed there have lower levels. But the heavy metal also appears to bind to bacteria in organic matter that sinks to the lower depths where deepwater fish eat it. Those fish, in turn, are eaten by large predatory deep-water fish at the top of the food chain. The nine species studied, ranked from deepest- to shallowestfeeding, were 2 species of lantern fish, swordfish, bigeye tuna, moonfish (opah), skipjack tuna, yellowfin tuna, mahi-mahi, and flying fish. Facts About Eating Fish