# Fish from local waters are just fine



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Fish from local waters are just fine
Understanding what the regulations mean

It doesn't matter whether I'm doing fishing-related seminars out-of-state or in Michigan, there's a single question that's seems to keep coming up: People want to know if the fish here are safe to eat.

If the fish is properly cleaned and cooked, you can eat enough to start developing the same roll over your belt that I'm working on.

Downriver fish are great eating and, just as the advisory manual states, they provide a diet high in protein and low in saturated fats.

http://www.bellevilleview.com/stories/022306/spo_20060223008.shtml


----------



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Emailed to HR:


Greetings! Below you will find three links with guidance and information 
about fish consumption advisory programs. In fact, the broadest advisory 
applies to Michigan inland lakes for mercury (MDCH 2003, pg.2). According to 
the information in these websites mercury is found throughout the muscle 
tissue. Not all restrictions concern mercury, not all restrictions concern 
PCBs. Trimming the fish and cooking the fat away is recommended by the 
guidelines to reduce PCBs, not mercury (MDCH 2003,pg. 3). 

The state advisory makes recommendations based on the particular water body, fish species, fish size, the contaminant and whether the consumer is of 
particular concern (women of child-bearing age and children) or in the 
general population (MDCH 2003,pg. 5). 

Just because a water body is listed in the advisory does not always mean 
there are restrictions. Sometimes a water body appears because data show 
that fewer restrictions exist than the general advisory. 

Michigan Department of Community Health - the official state fish advisory
http://www.michigan.gov/mdch/1,1607,7-132-2944_5327-13110--,00.html 

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality - the official state fish 
contaminant analyses
http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3313_3686_3728-32393--,00.html 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - federal fish advisory information; 
includes the 2004 joint EPA and Food and Drug Administration advisory
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish/ 

Geoffrey Habron
Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife
Dept. of Sociology
Michigan State University
13 Natural Resources
East Lansing, MI 48824-1222
517-432-8086 voice
517-432-1699 fax
[email protected]
http://www.msu.edu/~habrong


----------



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Scaled Down

http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-6/114183455213210.xml&coll=4

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 By JEFF KART TIMES WRITER
894-9639 [email protected]

A Michigan fish advisory program has gone belly up in recent years, but a state senator says the tank needs refilling. 

The state Department of Community Health stopped printing fish advisory guides in 2003 due to budget cuts. 

The guides, which warn anglers about mercury, dioxins and other toxic chemicals found in fish, then were distributed online. But in recent years, updates to the online guide have lagged.

The latest guide online at www.michigan.gov/mdch-toxics hasn't been updated since September 2004. 

Data is collected annually by the state departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality, but Community Health doesn't have anyone on staff to boil the data into public advisory guides, officials say. 

Some of the new data says it's OK to eat fish more often from some areas, like smaller walleye in the Saginaw River. Other data adds advisories, like one for brown trout in Lake Michigan, said Kory J. Groetsch, a toxicologist with Community Health in Lansing, who works on the guide when time allows. 

''I think the holdup is simply there's no one dedicated to do it,'' Groetsch said. ''There's zero funding to do the fish advisory, so it falls on people who already have other jobs to do and there's really no push from anyone to see it gets done.'' 

Sen. James A. Barcia, D-Bay City, said he thinks the state needs to do a better job of getting information about toxics in fish out to the public. Women and children are especially at risk from eating contaminated fish. 

''It's inconsistent to be appealing to people in Michigan to hunt and fish and have the public not be informed,'' Barcia said.

''It's just something we should have in place for public safety. I think it's just a common sense issue.'' 

Groetsch said he's tried to streamline the way the online guide is put together, and hopes to get a 2006 guide out soon. That involves summarizing a 262-page DEQ report. 

''There's one good part in the fact that these chemicals don't change,'' Groetsch said. ''They're persistent. They stay there forever ... 

''All those chemicals that cause fish advisories typically don't go up.'' 

The Times was unable to reach a state toxicologist for details on what advisory information has changed in recent years. 

Barcia said he plans to bring the funding issue up with the Michigan Legislative Sportsmen's Caucus, a bi-partisan group of House and Senate members, and is pursing various avenues to get the fish advisory program up and running again. 

The program had around $300,000 in funding in the mid-1990s, for staffers to crunch DEQ testing numbers and print about 1 million advisory guides that were distributed to bait shops, health departments and other places throughout Michigan. 

Groetsch said the program operated after 2003 by scraping together money from other areas of the Community Health budget.


----------



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

A DANGER IN OUR WATERS: State continues to grapple with mercury contamination
Sides disagree on how much of a cutback is enough

"My husband is an avid fly fisherman, and I think it's sad that we can't go fishing and eat what we catch," Eyer said.
Removing that cloud over fish caught in Michigan waters would be "a huge boon to the recreational economy," more than offsetting the costs of filtering out mercury, he said.

An even bigger consideration: sparing children from mercury exposure.

Republican Dick DeVos, who accuses the DEQ of over-regulating business, probably will not take a position on the mercury standards until after the election, spokesman John Truscott said.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060806/NEWS06/608060593/1008

AMERICAN INDIAN TRADITIONS: Toxin endangering tribes' way of life 
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060806/NEWS06/608060592/1008

Whitefish spawning shows river's health 
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060529/NEWS06/605290378/1008

Bald eagles serve as ecological barometer 
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060528/SPORTS10/605280677/1008

ERIC SHARP: Overpopulation is the real culprit 
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060121/SPORTS10/601210346/1008

Dining on fish? Watch what you eat

Where it's coming from

What you need to know about mercury

Where to learn more


----------



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

One fish, two fish?
How much -- and which kind -- can we eat safely?

http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/features-5/1159192354252150.xml&coll=5

THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION Monday, September 25, 2006 
By Carol Azizian [email protected]  810.766.6245

Don Wolfe, owner of Dale's Natural Foods, loves walleye, whitefish and wild salmon. But because of the recent health scares about contaminants, he doesn't eat fish as frequently as he once did.

"I'm not saying don't eat fish," Wolfe said. "I strongly recommend taking omega-3 (fatty acids) in capsule form and eating fish less often." 

Do the risks of consuming fish outweigh the health benefits? Should you can the tuna? Sack the salmon? 

The debate continues to evolve with new studies coming out all the time. 

Though physicians and nutritionists have recommended substituting fish for red meat for years, Americans are not big on fish. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that people eat about 3.4 ounces a week, according to a Los Angeles Times article. By comparison, USDA estimates that per capita meat consumption totals nearly 21 ounces. 

But Americans do eat tuna. Some 26 percent of all fish consumed in 2004 was canned tuna, according to the USDA. 

Scientists have been saying that the health benefits of fish are largely due to omega-3 fatty acids, especially two known as DHA and EPA, which are plentiful in oily fish such as salmon, trout and herring, the Times noted. Fish in fast-food restaurants, on the other hand, is often high in the unhealthy trans fats used to cook it. 

Since 2002, the American Heart Association has recommended that adults eat at least two servings of fish a week. 

Fish is good brain food. One recent study suggested that a fish-rich diet keeps the mind sharp, slowing age-related mental decline by the equivalent of three or four years. 

But here's the catch - some types of the high- protein, low-calorie food contain toxic contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and mercury, a heavy metal found in lakes, streams and oceans.

A study of 1,833 men in Finland, for example, reported that those who ate mercury-contaminated freshwater fish (and who ended up with higher mercury blood levels) suffered twice the rate of heart attacks and deaths from strokes as those who did not eat contaminated fish, the Times reported. 

For years, mercury has been used in a range of products (thermometers, thermostats, light switches). It rarely poses a direct health hazard in these products. But when it's released into the air by power plants, chemical manufacturers or industrial facilities and then settles into oceans and waterways, it builds up in the fish that we eat, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental action organization. 

Once mercury enters a waterway, it's transformed by bacteria into methyl mercury and works its way up the food chain as large fish consume smaller fish. 

Predatory fish such as large tuna, swordfish, shark and mackerel have higher concentrations of mercury because they live longer and consume smaller fish that also contain mercury. 

Mercury can be toxic to the brain, heart and nervous system and is especially damaging to the neurological development of babies and young children. 

In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advised pregnant and nursing women, women of child-bearing age and children to avoid certain fish, such as swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish and shark, because of the mercury content. 

"Mercury can affect the fetus' brain function," noted Kathy Peshke, a registered dietitian at Genesys Regional Medical Center. 

"I had one pregnant lady in here who was eating tuna every day," she said. "That's too much for somebody who's pregnant." 

Peshke said she recommends eating salmon because it's not high in mercury. White fish doesn't have omega-3 fatty acids, but it's still a good substitute for red meat, she said. 

Shellfish is another option, but it tends to have a little more cholesterol than fish. "The trouble with a lot of shellfish (like lobster or crab) is that you dip it in butter," she said.

The EPA recommends that women of child-bearing age and young children eat up to 12 ounces (two average meals) a week of a variety of fish and shellfish that are lower in mercury. Those include shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish. Albacore (or white) tuna has higher mercury levels than canned light tuna. 

"In the state of Michigan, I think we definitely need to be concerned about mercury," said Jennifer English, registered dietitian at Hurley Medical Center. 

A Michigan Family Fish Consumption Guide (put out by the Michigan Department of Community Health) notes that no one should eat more than one meal a week of certain fish from Michigan inland lakes, including rock bass, perch or crappie over 9 inches long, walleye, northern pike, largemouth and smallmouth bass and muskie. Women of child-bearing age and children under 15 should not eat more than one meal per month of those fish, it says. 

English said she recommends people get their omega-3 fatty acids from foods rather than supplements. She tells clients to include soybeans, canola, walnuts and flaxseed in their diets to help the body make omega-3 fatty acids. 

"For people who don't get enough from foods, they can take capsules," she said. 

The concern over mercury consumption has prompted some companies, such as Carvalho Fisheries on the West Coast, to sell a "minimal-mercury" tuna. But the price is high - $34.95 for six 7.5-ounce cans. 

The company's owners, Bill and Margaret Carvalho, had samples of albacore tuna of different sizes tested at a private laboratory, discovering that young albacore consistently had lower mercury content than older, larger fish. They drew the line at .3 parts per million or less "since that would put it lower than most all other seafood deemed low in mercury, like cod, halibut, crab, etc.," notes their Web site, www.carvalhofisheries.com. 

What happens to the mercury that accumulates in your system? 

"Every 50 days on average, we eliminate half the mercury in our bodies," Peshke said. "If you've eaten too much mercury, you may exhibit (these symptoms) - headaches, hair loss, slurred speech, memory problems, tremors, being tired or depressed and having a metal taste in your mouth." 

The Environmental Working Group has a tuna calculator on its Web site, www.ewg.org/issues/mercury. Plug your weight into the calculator and it will tell you the amounts of albacore tuna and light tuna that you can consume per week, according to FDA health standards.

Mike Donlan of Donlan's Fish Co. said ahi tuna is still a "wonderful seller." 

"People love that fish," he said. "We see an increase in sales on that every year." West Coast salmon also is popular, he noted. 

Dave Isbell, co-owner/operator of Grand Blanc Toyota/Mercedes Benz/BMW, said he never had a taste for fish until changing his eating habits for health reasons. 

"I was trying to lose weight and not eat as much beef," said Isbell, who enrolled in Genesys Athletic Club's Body by Design nutrition/workout program. "I was afraid to try it, but once I started eating fish, I liked it." 

Now he's hooked on fish five times a week. By changing his lifestyle, he lost 58 pounds, he said. 

"Florida grouper is my favorite," he added. "I like all kinds of white fishes. I eat ahi tuna about once every other week." 

Wolfe, whose health food store also carries cans of tuna and some frozen fish, said he sells "omega-3 oils in rivers." 

"Ten years ago, when I said the word fat to a customer, it was a cuss word," he said. "People now understand the difference between good fats (in fish, raw nuts and seeds) and bad fats."


----------

