Polluted Oceans, What Kind of Fish are Safe to Eat ?

[levm]

I have been sick with ciguatera after eating a barracuda in St. Vincent although at the time it was believed that this illness exist only in the northern part of the Caribbean. The experience was pretty scary but most of the symptoms went away after 24 hours. Some residual symptoms such as itching and sensitive hands (could not hold a cold drink in bear hand) stayed for 6 months.
After this experience (by doctor's advice) I did not touch fish for a year.
Common knowledge in the Caribbean is that barracuda is a no no, other surface caught fish such as MahiMahi and the tuna family are OK. Large groupers and reef predators should be avoided.



May the good winds always be with you

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by GordMay

The cigua-check test kits were found to be unreliable, and Oceanit no longer markets it.
➥ Quantitative Evaluation of Commercially Available Test Kit for Ciguatera in Fish

Again, I can personally attest to the unreliability of the kits. The second intoxication that Ann and I suffered was from a large Trevally we caught in the Northern Lagoon in New Cal. Normally I would not have dared to eat any of such a large fish, but we had the test kits, and it tested OK. The kits are expensive and have a short shelf life (six months from manufacture). The kit used was just at that life point... and we still used it, not wishing to discard the expensive item. Stupid us... or me at any rate, but we both suffered from that decision.

Nowadays we just don't fish much no matter where we are, and not at all in New Cal. With the loading dose that we carry, a lethal intoxication would not be difficult to imagine. It's a bugger!

Jim, using Ann's computer.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by secrabtree

Jim - Please look me up when you get to the bay area. secrabtree@att.net

Sam, sorry to say but we are not coming to the Bay area on this trip. It's all family business this time, and neither Ann not I have family in that area.

It would be fun to catch up after all these years...

Jim

[HighFly_27]

Hello All,

Well, We've (people, govt., business industry) made a mess of it with all the dumping of -- chemicals, sewage and about anything imaginable into the waterways i. e. streams, rivers, lakes, oceans. I'd venture to say, in 10 to 50 years from now, the amount of pollution will be doubled, tripled or more. It may become so bad, that going to the ocean is the last thing you'd want to do.

I was just checking on the New Jersey Beaches, around ten of them are still messed up with dead animal and human fleeces. I shudder to think of all the garbage that was dumped in the ocean for years & years from NY and NJ. I can see that our children may/ will live in a severely polluted world. The twisted side of all this (contaminated earth) happening will be like a Mad Max movie but it will be real life with a wrecked planet Earth.

Avery

[LakeSuperior]

Originally Posted by HighFly_27

Hello All,

Well, We've (people, govt., business industry) made a mess of it with all the dumping of -- chemicals, sewage and about anything imaginable into the waterways i. e. streams, rivers, lakes, oceans. I'd venture to say, in 10 to 50 years from now, the amount of pollution will be doubled, tripled or more. It may become so bad, that going to the ocean is the last thing you'd want to do.

I was just checking on the New Jersey Beaches, around ten of them are still messed up with dead animal and human fleeces. I shudder to think of all the garbage that was dumped in the ocean for years & years from NY and NJ. I can see that our children may/ will live in a severely polluted world. The twisted side of all this (contaminated earth) happening will be like a Mad Max movie but it will be real life with a wrecked planet Earth.

Avery

I remember back in the 80's hearing that there was reportedly 1 or 2 cubic miles of sewage in deep water off the coast of New Jersey.

[Striker37]

When i go to buy fresh or frozen fish from the pacific i bring my Geiger counter.If the fish shows no radiation then i buy it.

[Compass790]

Sharks over 10ft long are not allowed to be sold here due to the high mercury content but I doubt you will be cutting up something like that for dinner. Agree with the posts that say stay away from the dirty water spots & ciguatera cant be ignored but otherwise i suspect the sea fish cant be any worse than battery chickens or hogs. Getting away from the city will probably extend your life much more than it will be supposedly reduced by eating wild fish. Having said that I dont think i'd be fishing the river mouths of any Asian country

[jimbunyard]

Apologies in advance for thread drift/combination, but unlike the Steely Dan song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3YP...etailpage#t=16

I think it's best to pan fry the little ones and throw back the big ones.

Along the same lines though (as far as human... foibles or idiosyncracies and/or general lack of responsibility are concerned) does this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihjc...etailpage#t=75

belong here (because of the [possible {probable?}] connection to human (climatic change)) causes, or does it belong in the 'Global warming opens up the Antarctic' thread or in the thread on the Dauphin Island regatta, or in the 'Physics question' thread (if the train was moving faster would it have been blown off?)?

At any rate, it certainly seems a good time to keep ones' wits about one, old Mother Nature appears to hold no favorites...

[brightontrader]

I went handline fishing in the northern maldives ulugamu with the locals one night, they threw back the larger barracuda and only kept the small ones..2 foot or less.

On the old saying, only eat oysters if there is an R in the month, I totally ruined a weekend away with Wife in August after eating "fresh" live oysters in St Tropez. Nearly blxxdy died...

[secrabtree]

Jin - Too bad. Next time I hope. - Sam

[JoePa]

We have found the app fm Monteray Bay Aquarium's SeaFood Watch very useful. Seafood Watch - Official Site of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Sustainable Seafood Program

[biker6977]

Is Ciguatera only in water warm year round? We are in the Gulf of Mexico and eat fish we catch at least three times a week. Is this something that we don't have since the water cools down in the winter? We catch mainly- snapper, mackrel- spanish and king, pompano, trigger, specs, flounder, grouper, sheephead, spade, red fish and tuna but that's off shore.

[Arthur Garfield]

Just did alittle googling for Ciguatera in Pelagic fish (ocean going fish).
Seems not good news for human consumption !
Warm water ocean pelagics are infected particularly eastern pacific tropic/carribbian.This means DEEP WATER warm water fish(think mahi-mahi,wahoo,spanish macceral,tuna......)
Reccomendations- no warm water pelagics over 10 kilos in weight caught close to Islands,Aussieland.
Swordfish mercury content depends on what population caught from(Azores pop cleanest). Same with ALL species of tuna(Azores and Tasman cleanest)

Do the research ! easy to do and good precautionary!



All the Best

[rognvald]

Originally Posted by biker6977

Is Ciguatera only in water warm year round? We are in the Gulf of Mexico and eat fish we catch at least three times a week. Is this something that we don't have since the water cools down in the winter? We catch mainly- snapper, mackrel- spanish and king, pompano, trigger, specs, flounder, grouper, sheephead, spade, red fish and tuna but that's off shore.

Keep on eating Biker! The only time to worry is when the red tide is in bloom. Then, I'd avoid any fish caught near shore(within 10 miles)--especially mackerel which are tasty and plentiful but susceptible. Good luck and good fishing.