Mercury in fish
Submitted by Abz on Fri, 2012-01-06 00:10
Hi everyone,
Anyone here know much about mercury in fish? What would you avoid eating too much off, I have heard that species high up in the food chain have high levels of mercury things like tuna, sharks etc. is this the case with all fish? Or is it if you have coal mines or Plants around or some chemical plants around then this could cause it.
Interested to hear more about it because some websites say to limit your fish intake to once a week
Thanks
Abz
Jeffree
Posts: 489
Date Joined: 23/02/11
Did a bit of biology in High
Did a bit of biology in High school. From what i can remember, higher order consumers such as sharks, maccys, tuna etc will have more build ups of heavy metals such as mercury in thier system.
All species of fish will have some element of mercury in their system but lower order consumers have so little mercury in their system that it will not account for much. as a higher order consumer consumes a lower order consumer, the mercury is passed on to it.
So for example a first order consumer (prawn) is eaten by a second order consumer (herring) the mercury from the prawn is passed on to the herring. Then a third order consumer (mulloway) eats the herring, the mercury from the herring is passed on to the mulloway, which also includes the mercury from the prawn. Then a 4th order consumer (shark) eats the mulloway, then the mercury from all 3 species is passed on to the shark.
so to cut it short, the higher order consumers will have a high level of mercury.
hope i havent made an idiot out of myself and this all makes sense
not all asians keep undersize fish.
sarcasm0
Posts: 1396
Date Joined: 25/06/09
Right on the mark
The reason for the buildup is because of the energy translation between primary producers and the order of consumers. Eg Algae (primary producer) has 10 units of energy but the krill (first consumer)that eat the algae only gets one unit of the energy for the one volume of algae, the prawn who eats the krill gets 1/10th again. Basically the krill have to eat 10 x the original algae to get the energy that the original algae had. Same goes for the Small Fry that eat the krill and the big fry that eat the small fry. The problem comes when the Algae has mercury or other Heavy metal toxins they pass up the chain also because the consumers have to eat at least 10 of the previous order consumer to gain the energy transfer they also pick up 10 x the poison. So by the time the shark eats the mulloway above, its possible to have toxicity well above what is safe for consumption by humans.
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Eat more mulies and less
Eat more mulies and less sharks!
snapper
Posts: 335
Date Joined: 09/02/08
Nope
eat more prawns than mulies any day.
Assassin Land Based Fishing Club Member
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
No wonder your nick is
No wonder your nick is snapper.
The whole point is to eat your way down, not up, the foodchain. No one is ever going to seriously argue that eating a diet of mulies is going to expose you to mercury poisoning.
Abz
Posts: 81
Date Joined: 08/06/11
thanks for the info, it will
thanks for the info,
it will be interesting to know more about fish comsumption in humans and the short and long term consequences of low and high level of mercury in humans. ill prob research and read up more on it in the coming weeks.
Simo_
Posts: 1843
Date Joined: 13/11/06
I just found out today I have
I just found out today I have 4 times the normal level of Mercury in me... Dunno how it happened. Doctor said I cant eat fish and have to take a shit load of pills to get rid of it.
Bring on April
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Eat a lot of macks?
Eat a lot of macks?
Simo_
Posts: 1843
Date Joined: 13/11/06
Nope. I haven't eaten macks
Nope. I haven't eaten macks in over a year, don't eat shark either.
Bring on April
sea-kem
Posts: 15041
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Ah shit! you'll have to put
Ah shit! you'll have to put an end to all those northern fishing trips then ;)
Love the West!
sharles
Posts: 12
Date Joined: 03/01/12
The bigger the fish, higher
The bigger the fish, higher up the food chain and also longer living fish will have higher levels of mercury in them. You can always catch and release if you need a break from the offending fish in question.... :)
Abz
Posts: 81
Date Joined: 08/06/11
read they couldnt get rid of
read they couldnt get rid of mecury once in the body or maybe that its hard to get rid off.. did the doctor mention of the health effects if not treated??
Simo_
Posts: 1843
Date Joined: 13/11/06
You can get rid of it, just
You can get rid of it, just takes time.
Bring on April