Eat fish at least 2 times a week! That is what the Danish Ministry of Environment and Food say, that fish is the main course several times a week. It is important to eat different fish species of both fatty and lean fish. In total, you should eat 350 grams of fish per week, of which about 200 grams should preferably be fatty fish.
But it comes with a catch. Mercury! As illustrated below, mercury is a natural part of the food chain, but coal-fired power plants are the No. 1 culprit when it comes to adding mercury to our environment, that ends up in the fish that you eat.
Fish that are contaminated with mercury, can lead to very serious diseases. Fish in Danish waters have such high levels of mercury that researchers in all of the samples in 2015. In some cases, the level of mercury was up to 13 times higher than the limit value, according to a report published by DCE (Danish Centre For Environment And Energy). However, it is worth noting that the content in 98 percent of the cases does not exceed the limit value of the food for humans. But pregnant women and children is to avoid fish due to mercury contamination. As the consumption of mercury in the quantities can impair immune response and cause neurological damage leading to loss of coordination, vision, hearing and can produce mental retardation, especially in the young.
If we travel across the globe to Japan, dolphin and whale meat is a common source of food. Here tests conducted by BlueVoice.org on residents of the village of Taiji, Japan revealed that people who eat dolphin meat exhibit extremely high levels of mercury and other heavy metals. The Japanese Health Ministry advised level of mercury in humans is 0.4ppm. The highest level in their tests revealed a mercury level of 18.9 ppm in a man who eats dolphin to this day.
One tragic side effect of the ban on commercial whaling is that Japanese fishermen have increased their slaughter of dolphins many fold. A product labelled and sold as whale meat is often found to be dolphin meat if subject to molecular genetic analysis.
There is som tragic irony that the arguement that we not kill dolphins and whales for food cunsumption includes the fact that we have contaminated the seas to such an extent that these creatures are dangerous to eat.
BUT, there is hope. Safe Catch! Safe Catch inspects the fish to ensure it meets conventional standards: It has to fall within the normal size for the particular type of tuna, and display no visible deformities or strange odors that indicate disease. Then, Safe Catch partnered with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program–a global authority on sustainable and ethical seafood standards–to ensure the catch methods and labor practices of the fishing companies they source from fall in line with those standards. Furthermore, Safe Catch only sources from fisheries that have been certified by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
To carry out the mercury test, Safe Catch takes a small flesh biopsy (around the size of a grain of rice), using a syringe-like tool. The sample is then injected into the technology interface. On the screen, the Safe Catch team enters data about the origin and size of the fish; the analysis of the mercury level takes under a minute. Those fish that don’t pass the test are returned to the fishermen and likely sold to other tuna companies.
References
https://www.fastcompany.com/40497117/this-mercury-safe-tuna-company-is-on-a-mission-to-clean-up-the-oceans
https://www.foedevarestyrelsen.dk/Selvbetjening/Guides/Sider/Saadan-begraenser-du-kviksoelv-fra-isaer-fisk.aspx
http://www.bluevoice.org/news_dolphinmeat.php