Is Safety For Seafood Consumption Getting Narrower?
South Beath of Avalon (Arsh Tiwari/The Puma Prensa)
Written By: Arsh Tiwari, staff writer
For ages seafood has been a staple on dinner plates across the world, providing essential nutrients for healthy growth and development—but is it still safe to eat as much as we think? Bodies of water are constantly polluted and pose a critical risk to marine life. As humans develop further into the future, factors such as global warming and excessive pollution damage natural biodiversity. Due to the collective pollutants in the ocean, fish are contaminated by microplastics and toxins. Many chemicals accumulate in fish– apex predators consume most of the bioaccumulation which includes species such as Tuna, Bass, King Mackerel and farmed salmon. Often, smaller and lesser predatory fish consume microplastics directly in the water, thus resulting in a higher concentration of toxins in predators that consume affected sea life.
According to the Catalina Island Marine Institute, “Bioaccumulation is the process by which toxins enter the food web by building up in individual organisms, while biomagnification is the process by which toxins are passed from one trophic level to the next within a food web,” which ultimately causes the increase in concentration of the toxins. Such toxins are concentrated higher in the marine food chain, which makes consumption of seafood unsafe for humans. Artificial chemicals called Persistent Organic Pollutants are primarily linked with bioaccumulation and biomagnification. Such chemicals do not break down quickly in the environment. They can build up in the fatty skin tissues of living organisms, allowing them to be easily digested by human consumption of contaminated seafood.
Complications regarding the variety and the sources of toxins and pollutants found locally in California dates back to the unrestricted mining during the historic Gold Rush. Lori Chumney, a data analyst of toxins in the fish for The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment(OEHHA), stated that “it was the gold rush” that introduced harmful substances such as “Mercury and PCBs” into the waters of California due to the excessive local mining. Polychlorinated biphenyl(PCB) is a manufactured industrial POP that threatens young children's development. According to The Basel Convention Centre for Training and Technology Transfer for the Caribbean(BCRC-Caribbean), PCB's most critical and damaging impacts are “developmental and neurological problems from prolonged or repeated exposure to small amounts.” As the Washington State Department of Health puts it, infants who were born to women who consumed PCBs had ”problems with motor skills and a decrease in short-term memory,” which lasted for multiple years. Another common impact of PCB consumption from contaminated seafood in adolescents and adults is related to significant skin health problems such as severe acne and rashes. In recent years, more fish possess large, concentrated amounts of POPs and PCBs, which pollute the human body when consumed. Similarly, inorganic Mercury, which was introduced into the water by mining, is built up in the environment, resulting in” bacteria able to [transform] it into methylmercury,” which is a highly toxic organic mercury commonly accumulated by fish and shellfish,” leading to a higher concentration of mercury in the predators that consume the affected fish ultimately affecting the human consumers.
The safety of seafood consumption gradually narrows as toxins and industrial contaminants infiltrate vulnerable marine environments. Unfortunately, the fish are not the same anymore because society has devastated waters with pollution. Smaller fish commonly consume microplastics, and larger and predatory fish often accumulate more bioaccumulation. As seafood remains a dietary staple for humans worldwide, it is crucial to be aware of the recent problems of consuming marine animals in contaminated waters. We can make a difference by supporting local and small-scale fisheries which use sustainable and clean methods of fishing as well as opting for seafood that is certified sustainable, given labels from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). To ensure a safer and healthier future for aquatic animals and human consumers, it is crucial to make educated choices on the variety of safe fish to consume, practice sustainable fishing, and advocate cleaner marine life worldwide.