disturbing bass fact.

[Nebe]

Not really a surprise, but i heard that Peter Vican's 70 plus pound bass had 2 times the safe limit of mercury in it. He sent a sample to a lab for testing..

Also, The fish was over 30 years old

[striperman36]

good release trophy fish

[Raven]

doesn't pay to eat them
that's for sure
old fish have been absorbing
mercury from rainfall....
and not necessarily from USA smoke stacks

[ivanputski]

I would love to see what usda beef tests for...

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by Raven

doesn't pay to eat them
that's for sure
old fish have been absorbing
mercury from rainfall....
and not necessarily from USA smoke stacks

I heard a lot of the mercury accumulation comes from menhaden and some of the other critters they eat.

[timmah]

no sense at all

smokestacks = rainfall = acid rain = mercury in fish.

coal tar. yum

[Raven]

Originally Posted by ivanputski

I would love to see what usda beef tests for...

was reading recently how the grass over
on the left coast (Oregon) had been contaminated with pollution
and or radioactive fallout from the Japan disaster and then the cows ate the grass and whamo it shows up in the milk.

Similarly ....the un scrubbed pollution from China's industrial smokestacks gets into the weather system and rains down later......
thousands of miles away.

It doesn't mix right in to ocean water and disseminate into the salt water....instead it sits on top for awhile...
that's where schooling fish like menhaden make contact and it gets into the food chain.

Just recently this past week a YELLOW FOG surrounded one of their cities ...a new type of smog and industrial pollution

Who knows what the ramifications of that will be

[numbskull]

I suspect it is not a good idea to eat multiple meals from the same fish. Most studies of toxin levels in fish shows that levels in individual fish vary widely and some fish are way above the "safe" level.

When you eat multiple meals from a single fish, if that fish happens to be one with a high toxin level, you (and your family) can ingest a much higher cumulative dose (possibly 30-40X higher) than what you would expect if you ate the same number of meals from 4-5 different fish.

While this is more commonly a problem with tuna than bass (I know of two people in my town who poisoned themselves eating fish they caught), if you have small kids you might want to rethink the wisdom of keeping a large bass and freezing much of it for repeated family meals.

[RIROCKHOUND]

Originally Posted by timmah

no sense at all

smokestacks = rainfall = acid rain = mercury in fish.

coal tar. yum

It actually makes a lot of sense... many toxins come from bioaccumulation of small doses in the fatty tissue.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by RIROCKHOUND

bioaccumulation of small doses in the fatty tissue.

over a period of 30 years and it only took say ten years
to reach the danger level if that 30 year old fish had three times the amount needed to be considered Hazardous for human consumption.

so how old is a 30 inch fish ?

[FishermanTim]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought acid rain is more of a contributor of carcinogenics than of mercury.
Isn't mercury pollution more the result of our own logging industry and CURRENT polluting of our own rivers and streams?

Sadly, it affects both fresh and salt water inhabitants eqaully.
The larger the predator, the more mercury they absorb from their prey, their prey's prey and their prey's prey's prey etc......

Whether it's acid rain or mercury pollution, we all lose in the end!!!

[zimmy]

So many reasons to release big fish.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought acid rain is more of a contributor of carcinogenics than of mercury.
Isn't mercury pollution more the result of our own logging industry and CURRENT polluting of our own rivers and streams?

Sadly, it affects both fresh and salt water inhabitants eqaully.
The larger the predator, the more mercury they absorb from their prey, their prey's prey and their prey's prey's prey etc......

Whether it's acid rain or mercury pollution, we all lose in the end!!!

quite true.... speaking of Carcinogens...diesel fumes have now been linked to cancer...
seems pretty dammed stupid to be shuttling kids around in diesel fueled buses now doesn't it...

Mercury is being widely used in Gold Mining especially down in countries like Brazil where its reminiscent of the gold mining days
of the old wild west... and probably in Alaska too to some degree...

it's mercury though that causes brain dysfunctional learning disabilities in kids and it gets then stored in OUR fatty tissues
until we reach the Toxic levels where it manifests into health problems as we metabolize fat

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought acid rain is more of a contributor of carcinogenics than of mercury.
Isn't mercury pollution more the result of our own logging industry and CURRENT polluting of our own rivers and streams?

That's why I was asking because I thought the Mercury was from other contributing factors, but not nearly as articulate as you do. Thanks for the extra info.

[JackK]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought acid rain is more of a contributor of carcinogenics than of mercury.
Isn't mercury pollution more the result of our own logging industry and CURRENT polluting of our own rivers and streams?

I forget the exact mechanism (been a while since environmental chem), but combustion releases mercury into the atmosphere, it gets precipitated then becomes methyl mercury, which is absorbed by plankton/inverts... those are eaten in turn by smaller critters, then fish, etc... which leads to the bio-accumulation RIR spoke of.

Power plant emissions have historically accounted for about a third of the mercury pollution present in the US each year- a pretty significant amount. Thankfully the EPA finally put restrictions on power plants to curb mercury emissions last year, so hopefully we'll be seeing less of it in gamefish going forward. When I was in college I helped with a project done by one of the professors (Mercury contaminants in commercial and recreational finfish of Narragansett Bay, RI)- some interesting findings. Bluefish had the least amount of mercury (due to no minimum size and a fast growth rate) followed by striped bass. Tautog however were by far the worst- they grow so slowly that by the time they're of legal size they're pretty old, and are completely loaded with mercury. Food for thought.

[Mr. Sandman]

It's all natural and organic. Besides we are all going to die someday.

Everything has trace levels of something bad in it, even the air you breath in your home. The safe limits are very safe. I suspect that eating something (like a normal person eats) that has 2X the "safe" limit will not hurt your.

If you drink enough diet coke it will kill you.

[Raven]

you mean diet coke containing aspartame?

[Rob Rockcrawler]

Thank god im a diet Pepsi drinker.

[Piscator]

Thank God I'm a Beer drinker!
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jenn]

Originally Posted by Piscator

Thank God I'm a Beer drinker!
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Soda Diet or regular is garbage

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by Mr. Sandman

It's all natural and organic.

As is snake venom.

[Justfishin']

.....I know of two people in my town who poisoned themselves eating fish they caught....

What kind of poisoning was it? Was it from tuna, bass and other migratory fish or ground fish( pollock , hake , monk & the like) ?