Carolina has found elevated levels of mercury in yellow perch and black crappie—love the name—encouraging people to eat less of them.
EMaxHealth has more:
Two more types of freshwater fish in southeastern North Carolina have been found to have elevated levels of mercury. They are yellow perch caught south and east of Interstate highway 85, and black crappie caught south and east of I-95. State public health officials are urging pregnant women and children to avoid eating those fish altogether, and urging others to limit their consumption of those fish to no more than one meal a week.
The two species join a growing list of freshwater and saltwater fish that are high in mercury. The state’s high-mercury list now includes the following freshwater fish: blackfish (bowfin), wild catfish, jack fish (chain pickerel), warmouth and yellow perch south and east of I-85 and largemouth bass across the state, as well as black crappie south and east of I-95.
Ocean fish on the state’s high-mercury list include canned white tuna (albacore tuna), all fresh or frozen tuna, almaco jack, banded rudderfish, cobia, crevalle jack, greater amberjack, South Atlantic grouper (gag, scamp, red and snowy), king mackerel, ladyfish, little tunny, marlin, orange roughy, shark, Spanish mackerel, swordfish and tilefish.
As a fisherman—and a bad one at that—mercury contamination worries me. For reference, here’s Dr. Fuhrman’s list of fish with the highest mercury levels. Take a look:
- Tilefish
- Swordfish
- Mackerel
- Shark
- White snapper
- Tuna
And the lowest levels of mercury:
- Salmon
- Flounder
- Sole
- Tilapia
- Trout
Now, if you want to know more about water pollution and mercury contamination, check out our friends at
OceansAlive.org.
