Blue Water Fishermen's Association claims people shouldn't worry about mercury contamination in seafood

The Blue Water Fishermen's Association has issued a press release stating that it's perfectly fine if sushi and other seafood contains high levels of mercury. Yes, that's what they're saying. Tuna, salmon, shellfish, and just about every other edible marine animal that isn't farm-raised can contain high levels of mercury in them, but the fishermen are telling you not to worry about it.

Over the last several years it's been established that the trace element selenium, found in all marine fish, prevents and reverses adverse effects of mercury exposure. According to Nick Ralston, University of North Dakota expert on selenium/mercury interactions, the extremely high binding affinity between selenium and mercury is a fundamental feature of selenium's protective effect against mercury.

Here's the problem, fish accumulate mercury in their bodies just like humans do. Oceana recently conducted a study (pdf) that found tuna and swordfish from around the country had higher levels of mercury than the FDA's own data suggests.

So we've got higher levels of mercury than the FDA tells us, and this group of fishermen, who understandably want to protect their livelihoods, is telling us that because fish contain trace amounts of selenium, we shouldn't worry about it, that it's safe to eat. Unless those trace amounts of selenium can bind to large amounts of mercury, the math doesn't add up.

I don't know about anybody else, but I've got to tell you, I'm not buying their argument. The Blue Water Fishermen's Association has too much of a vested interest in downplaying the risks of mercury contamination in seafood for me to trust them. Pregnant women and families with children should especially take this news with a grain of salt.

Ideally, this shouldn't be an issue at all. We shouldn't be allowing any amount of mercury into our waters that doesn't occur naturally. But the truth is, companies are still polluting our water and air with way too much mercury, and the federal government is continually trying to relax emissions and contamination standards.

If we change that, then maybe in a decade or two we won't even be discussing mercury levels in fish at all. Perhaps that's the approach fishermen need to take, rather than trying to play the same cards as big tobacco and pretend it's all perfectly healthy.

Note: I tried to find a link to the Blue Water Fishermen's Association website, but apparently they don't have one, and none was included in their press release.