Mercury in Fish

A number of months ago, I read an article that highlighted the increasing prevalence of mercury in fish.

Now, for many years, I had heard of this problem.  It doesn't affect me that much directly, since I do not particularly like seafood, but I was known in my younger years to indulge somewhat frequently on tuna salad sandwiches, and I would splurge on a hearty swordfish steak if I were ever taken out to dinner.  Even today, I occasionally make salmon patties and the “men” (I'm including my two young sons in this group) in my family really get enthused when mom has no time to cook and they all sit down to a sardine feast.

As I write, I shudder when I recall that I even think that I ate some of that swordfish when pregnant with my first son who is now autistic.   (More on autism and metals in a future post!)

Well, aside from that out-of-the-ordinary swordfish splurge, I pretty much stayed away from seafood when I was pregnant.  During my second pregnancy, I was so nauseous for the entire nine months that I was lucky to get anything down :-).

So I never paid much mind to the seas and what was going on there — until I read the aforementioned article.  Here is an excerpt:

Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of Earth's oceans have built up stunningly high levels of toxic and heavy metals, according to American scientists who say the findings spell danger not only for marine life but for the millions of humans who depend on seafood.