06-06-2015, 02:08 PM
[#0000FF]Yeah, I know. Bad form to reply to your own post. But I had some info on mercury that I thought might be applicable to current conversation. Here's a link to a [url "http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/2011/january/food/mercury-in-tuna/overview/index.htm"]Consumer Report article[/url]:
Back in about 1970 I was living in Santa Barbara, CA. My regular work assignments in the chemical business allowed several days a month in which I could work as a deck hand on fishing party boats or commercial boats. It was great to get paid for something I enjoyed.
I had a friend who had recently purchased a long nosed swordfish harpooning boat. He had me join him whenever I could and we made some good money when the swords were out around the channel islands.
When returning from one trip...with several hefty swordfish in the hold...we were stopped at the docks. We were told that they could not buy our fish, inasmuch as recent testing of swordfish off California had revealed high levels of mercury. We donated the fish to a couple of local charity groups and whimpered a lot. My friend ended up losing his boat in the coming weeks.
The rest of the story? Within a few months the ban was lifted...after the testing agency checked preserved samples of swordfish from the late 1800s that had been preserved in a museum...and found levels of mercury even higher than current levels.
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Back in about 1970 I was living in Santa Barbara, CA. My regular work assignments in the chemical business allowed several days a month in which I could work as a deck hand on fishing party boats or commercial boats. It was great to get paid for something I enjoyed.
I had a friend who had recently purchased a long nosed swordfish harpooning boat. He had me join him whenever I could and we made some good money when the swords were out around the channel islands.
When returning from one trip...with several hefty swordfish in the hold...we were stopped at the docks. We were told that they could not buy our fish, inasmuch as recent testing of swordfish off California had revealed high levels of mercury. We donated the fish to a couple of local charity groups and whimpered a lot. My friend ended up losing his boat in the coming weeks.
The rest of the story? Within a few months the ban was lifted...after the testing agency checked preserved samples of swordfish from the late 1800s that had been preserved in a museum...and found levels of mercury even higher than current levels.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]