This fish story is no fish story

I have a kind of funny relationship with fish. So far, I’ve never met one I didn’t like for dinner. On the other hand, I have never had much patience to spend the day on the water, trying to catch one. Until I was about 13, though, I tried.  In the summer my uncle and my cousin and I would rent a small boat and set off for the ocean off Niantic, Conn.  I caught a few fish –– mainly small flounder –– and had them for dinner, but I never was as into it as my two companions. Millions of people do enjoy the sport, of course, and I‘m happy I gave it a try.

Years later, my cousin got married and moved to San Francisco and, as it turns out, his father-in-law was a major fisherman, who not only caught tons of salmon, but smoked them.  Nothing like smoked salmon. I’ve had his and they were good. He fished until he was 100, even driving across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito to fish the pier when he was 98.

He died a few years ago at 101, but if he were alive today I’m pretty sure he would read with interest what I’m about to write based on an item in this week’s ACS Weekly PressPac even though it doesn’t pertain to the waters near the City by the Bay.

Mercury levels in a popular species of game fish in Lake Erie are increasing after two decades of steady decline, scientists are reporting. The study, the most comprehensive to date on mercury levels in Great Lakes fish, is in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal.

Satyendra Bhavsar and colleagues note that the Great Lakes is the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world. The lakes are of significant economic importance to the United States and Canada due to the area’s $7 billion fishing industry. High levels of mercury in fish can potentially cause adverse health effects in people. Although government regulations and improved emissions control technologies have greatly reduced mercury emissions in the environment, their impact on mercury levels in Great Lakes fish is unclear.

The scientists studied mercury levels in 5,807 fish samples collected from the lakes between the 1970s and 2007. The samples included lake trout and walleye, two of the most common species of game fish caught in the region.

The researchers found that mercury levels in the fish steadily declined from the mid-1970s to 2007 in the upper Great Lakes (Superior and Huron). In recent years (between 1990 and 2007), however, the mercury concentrations leveled-off in Lake Ontario walleye but appear to be increasing in Lake Erie walleye. The mercury increases in Lake Erie walleye are likely caused by a combination of factors, including modifications in Lake Erie’s foodweb due to invasions of dreissenid mussels and round goby, the scientists suggest. 

To read the study, go to this week’s ACS Weekly PressPac at mercury.

You probably have guessed the photo in this item is NOT Lake Erie. I took this shot while on vacation this month in Maine and it was such a peaceful scene I wanted to share it.