Merury found in all PA fish

[Eyelander]

Recently the state of PA has isuued a state wide warning that all fish in PA waters are contaminated with mercury.
They waited until 3 days before opening day of trout to post this warning, after everyone had purchased their trout stamp of course.

They are saying only eat one meal of fish per week!!

How do fish end up with mercury in them???

[r]

r

[Mac]

There is a trace of mercury is almost all animal life and plant life. It is found naturally almost everywhere, however a lot of industrial process concentrate it in different localities. Those situations are being corrected hopefully.
It proceeds up the food chain as one form of life consumes another until those who are near the top get some pretty high concentrations depending on where they are dining.
The highest concentrations in an animal or fish are in the blood, bones and structures of the head and abdominal cavity. If the PA fish were tested by putting whole fish in a grinder or just the fillets it makes a big difference.
Advice? Eat young fish and only the fillets and you will cut down the amt going into your body, unless of course you want to make your body less desirable to cannibals.
Just another reason to release those old MAMAS.

[tljty]

tljty

[ohio]

I understood most of it comes from acid rain. Also bottom feeders have higher levels of contamination.

[Kevin B]

The "eat fish only once a week" syndrome is not confined to PA. As far as I know,every state sings that song nowdays. You've got to remember, science is much better today at analyzing contaminants in fish than they were 20 years ago. As a kid in the 60's, I remember Ohio singing that song about the fish in Erie. (We only ate walleye, smallmouth, white bass and perch twice a week. Not because of the warnings either.) In fact, this song is sung worldwide as Japaneese and Russian exchange students tell me about similar warnings in their countries. Truth is, nobody knows what constitutes a "harmful level" of mercury. Oh yeah, and you are supposed to get those silver/mercury contaminated fillings in your teeth replaced with space age acrylic fillings. That'll just cost you several thousand dollars which your dental insurance plan will not pay for. Your dental insurance company doesn't think mercury will harm you.

I am tempted to ask if you eat peanut butter or chew gum as they are carcinogenic. Additionally, Iowa should quit raising hogs and producing those delicious hams and bacon as they contain nitrites and other carcinogenic substances. And don't inhale after shooting a deer because you might get lead poisoning from the muzzle blast (lead from your bullet). NEVER breathe while visiting a trap field . . . ad infinitum.

[Mac]

A bit more to add. Here in NE S Dak they say we have mercury in the fish in some of our new lakes and that it's coming from decaying vegetation, so don't always blame acid rain or your local industries.