Interesting article on Mercury in fish
 

Studies Aim To Resolve Confusion Over Mercury Risks From Fish - Science News

Here's the bottom line...

http://www.sciencenews.org/pictures/...fish_guide.jpg

It must be the mercury that tastes so good.

oh man that tuna sashimi was soooo yummy

Do you see the trend? Smaller fish = lower mercury, Larger fish = higher mercury. It's called bio-accumulation. Bigger fish eat smaller fish, mercury is a heavy metal and isn't excreted.

yup - more related to trophic level, but body size roughly correlates (in fish)

BTW - Hg in fish is a direct result of using electricity

(coal fired power plants are used to generate most electricity; and coal combustion liberates Hg)

Another example of how the GreenPeace crowd are killing the planet with their anti nuclear energy message. :p

Sr-90 forever!

I work for an energy company, none of our plants use coal. Most are natural gas and we have a geothermal complex in Northern Cali. Most are also We just bought 19 plants, most use low sulfur diesel. I think there are a couple that use coal. One of the first things that we're going to do is convert the plants over to natural gas.

Most of the "very high mercury" fish are going to be harder to get, and eventually may go extinct, in the coming years anyway.

I do like tuna sushi, but not as much as I like Galveston oysters so maybe I'll be OK.

Natural gas is an xlnt. transistional fuel - and its use will increase for some time. Right now, total US energy consumption (includes gasoline, i.e transport) is still mostly from oil, but natural gas has moved up to be neck and neck with coal.

Unfortunately, China is going gang busters with coal fired power (~ 2/3 of their entire (fixed + transport) energy consumption) and their output is our input...

We have about 30,000 lbs of highly radioactive mercury at work. Anybody want some? SmileWavy

You should hang on to it. I hear that swordfish eat that stuff right up!

IROC, what is this "alleged" lab....

in Knoxville??

Oak Ridge National Lab.

Where was the confusion?

Mostly because no one will meet in the middle. SmileWavy

That is bad stuff. I'd advise you to flush it down the toilet a little at a time.


Better yet, sell it to a light bulb manufacturer in China. They love that discount stuff.

You're going to convert thermal steam plants from coal to natural gas? Your operating cost are going to go up.

I'm too lazy to look this up...

Thought I heard that some of the mercury in the ocean comes from burning diesel... as in all those big-a$$ ships running around out there crossing the seas.


Honestly don't know... is there mercury in diesel exhaust?