Before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill even happened, there were aguments for and against the eating of fish and seafood. On the one hand, we often hear about mercury toxicity in fish, but on the other hand we do know that fish provide Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) which are essential for human health. Right now however, there are real health and ethical reasons to completely stop eating fish and other seafood. At the very least to cut down considerably.
Why? Well, because we have a massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
Even if the well is successfully closed soon there is still the issue of the remaining pollution and its impact on sea-living species (and inevitably on human health). We will have a significant clean-up job on our hands, and the pollution will remain for some time.
Obviously the US government will not allow fishing in the water that is being directly affected by the oil spill, but that does not mean that we are ‘off the hook’ so to speak. What happens under the surface of the water is not obvious to the casual observer, but you can count on the pollution spreading further under water than on the surface.
There are two serious issues to consider when you decide whether you are comfortable eating seafood. Firstly what types of toxins could find their way onto your plate? Secondly, are you willing to accept the ecological disaster waiting to happen in the form of overfishing the remaining good fishing locations?
In terms of toxins, we have a number of different substances building up in fish that are living in oil affected waters. Firstly we have crude oil and secondly we have the dispersant being used, currently Corexit 9500. Crude oil contains both mercury and lead, which are obviously highly poisonous heavy metals. Crude oil also includes benzene, toluene and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), all of which cause cancer. While scientists claim that PAH does not accumulate in fish, they concede that it does accumulate in shellfish. The dispersant Corexit 9500 is a highly poisonous substance, roughly four times more poisonous than oil.
Heavy metals such as lead and mercury cycle through a fish’s respiratory system, eventually accumulating in its body. As some many larger fish are predatory, they receive both the environmental load of toxins, plus the accumulation of toxins from the smaller fish. This pattern continues up the food chain until the largest fish (those that are prized as being for human consumption) have significant accumulations of heavy metals. For this reason, a percentage increase in the heavy metal load due to the environment of the fish will have greater than the percentage increase in heavy metal accumulation in large predatory fish.
Mercury results in degenerative illnesses (particularly targeting the brain) in humans and crosses the placenta in pregnant mothers. While mercury will cause degeneration of health in adults, it is significantly more concentrated when consumed by children or accumulated in a foetus. Mercury is suspected to be a leading cause of autism, Down’s syndrome and other intellectual impairments.
Lead affects the nervous system, brain, kidneys and reproductive system. In children it has been associated with low IQ, slow growth and hearing defects. In laboratory tests on animals, no minimum quantity of lead has been considered a safe dose; even the smallest quantities have had a harmful effect.
The chemical dispersant, Corexit 9500, used by BP to try to break up the oil from the surface of the water is known to be both more toxic and also less effective than other chemical disbursants, requiring a stronger application. I feel that we have a case of misaligned corporate ethics coming into this situation as Corexit 9500 was reputedly banned in Britain over a decade ago due to its highly toxic affects on both the environment and people. How ‘British’ Petroleum ended up with such a large supply then I do not know.
The use of this chemical in such quantities and at such oceanic depths is unknown in human history, and the exact contents of the mixture are a trade secret. Expected health effects are respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders, again grossly affecting children due to their smaller size. At this time over 600,000 gallons of Corexit 9500 have been utilised in an attempt to clean up the oil spill. To make things even worse, the toxicity of Corexit 9500 in a solution of water increases with water temperature, and oil in the water is resulting in higher water temperatures.
Clearly the fish and shellfish living in and around the Gulf of Mexico are going to be off the menu for some time. The government won’t willingly allow the people to eat contaminated fish, so all should be fine right?
Well unfortunately the Gulf Coast is responsible for about half of the total US harvest in its high season. Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico is an estimated $2.4 billion industry. Not only is fishing a good source of income for the government (via taxation) but people are currently eating those fish and so assuming the demand remains, the supply of fish for food will have to come from someplace else.
In addition, many fish, particularly deep ocean fish are migratory and will pass through the Gulf of Mexico waters on their way to someplace else. Some fish will travel up to 200 miles for feeding and reproduction and so it is not possible to easily determine which fish will have been affected by the growing pollution.
The requirement for an increase in fish from other waters has a secondary impact: overfishing. We have already been facing a global overfishing issue for some time. Overfishing is when commercial fishing results in so many fish being caught that the fish are unable to replenish their population. This is a very real circumstance occuring in the oceans today – according to overfishing.org, almost 80% of the world’s fisheries are fully to over-exploited, depleted or in a state of collapse, and over 90% of the stocks of large predatory fish stocks are already gone. This means that we already have a situation where the ocean ecology is under stress and at risk of failure, and we are approaching a situation where it may not even be possible to eat fish due to the food source no longer being available.
It is not only the fish that are affected by overfishing, sea birds and mammals both eat fish, and as the number of edible fish become harder to find, these animals are being increasingly caught in fishing hauls, killed and discarded.
So while those of us who are not yet affected by the disaster in the USA can sit back and watch everything unfold, it will be our fish stock that will be increasingly removed from the oceans to make up for the shortfall in US fishing.
In my opinion, the only way we can feel confident that the pollution will not reach our own bodies via the consumption of fish is to no longer consume fish. Likewise, by saying no to eating fish, we can take an active stance against the overfishing of the waters in our backyards. We need to look into getting our EFAs from other sources such as flaxseeds, spirulina, chlorella and phytoplankton. Fortunately, fish do not create their own EFAs, but instead break down the EFAs in the microalgae food that they consume. Humans are able to do the same, and so we can replace fish in the diet with supplemental sources of EFA. There are already a number of supplements being manufactored for vegans who want to increase the number of EFAs in their diet; your local health food shop should have them available. Personality I only consume fish as the occasional fish oil supplement, but I have already switched over to a marine phytoplankton supplement.
Want to find out more about health, then visit Petra Smirnoff’s site on how to choose the healthiest diet for your needs.