Southeastern Fishes Council
In the News
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EPA Raises Awareness Of Tainted Fish
March 8, 2004
Release from:
By Bryan Brasher
Ledger-Enquirer (Columbus, Georgia)
It was about this time last year that Michelle Brinton and her husband, Aaron, brought home several largemouth bass they caught while walking the banks of Lake Oliver in Columbus.
Back then, they cleaned and ate the fish with no worries. Next time, Michelle says she'll think twice.
The Brintons learned Friday that Lake Oliver's largemouth, like the bass in many Chattahoochee reservoirs, are contaminated with mercury. And according to a recent report, mercury-contaminated fish pose more dangers to humans than once believed -- especially to women of child-bearing age and children.
"I had always heard about the fish in the Chattahoochee, but I didn't know for sure," said Michelle, who fished Friday with her husband and 4-year-old son, Parker. "Knowing that now, I don't think I could eat fish again without thinking about it."
A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed the results of a study, examining the blood mercury levels of 1,709 women ages 16-49. The study showed that 8 percent of the women had unsafe concentrations of mercury in their blood.
Because developing fetuses are most susceptible to mercury poisoning, the article prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to raise its estimates for the number of babies born each year with high mercury blood levels. Because the chief source of mercury exposure is the consumption of contaminated fish, it also prompted the EPA and the Food & Drug Administration to update their fish consumption advisories.
Bought or caught
The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service issued a release for the FDA and EPA last week, advising children under age 6, nursing mothers, pregnant women and women who may become pregnant not to eat several types of fish that contain high levels of mercury. The list included shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish -- species often purchased from fish markets.
Besides the warnings about purchased fish, the release urged people to familiarize themselves with local fish consumption advisories -- and the lakes of the Chattahoochee Valley have several.
Mercury-related advisories have been issued for the largemouth bass in Lake Harding, Lake Oliver, Goat Rock Lake and West Point Lake. Mercury advisories also have been issued for spotted bass in the portions of the Chattahoochee River between West Point Dam and Interstate 85, and for largemouth and shoal bass in parts of the Flint River.
Joanne Cavis, the coordinator for the Georgia Cooperative Extension Service's Columbus office, said the intent of the release was not to cause a panic, but to raise awareness about the contaminants in bought and caught fish.
"This is an important food-safety issue," Cavis said. "What we want to do is educate the public without scaring them to death. People who eat fish from area lakes -- especially the people in these sensitive categories -- need to be aware of the advisories and follow them closely. They also need to know what's in the fish they're buying over the counter."
Important perspective
Because mercury can cause problems with growth, behavior and development of young children, state officials agree that fish consumption advisories should be taken seriously. But according to Kevin Chambers, a spokesman for the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, people should also keep the advisories in perspective.
Advisories for Lakes Harding, Oliver and Goat Rock recommend eating largemouth bass no more than once a week. Even then, a fisherman could still eat bass 52 times a year.
Rough estimates by Georgia DNR are that caught bass are released more than 80 percent of the time. DNR biologists believe most bass that are cleaned and eaten are kept by bank fishermen like the Brintons who rarely catch more than one or two per trip. Also, the bass kept are usually small -- which means they are less at risk for mercury contamination.
"Because a bass is at the top of the food chain, it becomes contaminated from eating little fish," Chambers said. "The longer a bass lives, the more contaminated it gets. The good news is, no matter how hard people try, they aren't going to catch lots of giant bass every time they fish."
Some bank fishermen even release small bass, which have a strong, fishy taste, in favor of more mildly flavored fish like crappie, bluegill and catfish. The other fish are still sometimes contaminated -- but with PCBs, not mercury. PCBs cause many of the same health problems as mercury. But unlike mercury, which clings to the flesh of the fish, PCBs accumulate in fatty areas that can be easily trimmed during cleaning.
Despite the new EPA findings, Chambers said consumption advisories for Georgia lakes will not be strengthened.
"The guidelines we have in place now are adequate even with the new information from the EPA," he said. "Our guidelines were set up to deal with the worst-case scenario."
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