Consumption

[idbefishing]

"And beside where on this earth can you find farm raised fish that are not exposed to air pollution emissions? Where can one go in IN that does not have a power plant buring coal nearby?
Not anywhere in Southern IN that is for sure."

Yeah but at least fish farm pond not connects to rivers and creeks that take all the water runoff and pollution from the surrounding land and they don't eat other bait fish which already being contaminated. Whatever pollution fall directly onto the pond is probably so minutes that it have no harm.

[Moose1am]

Well some lakes are surrounded by farmland that has had human waste residue applied to the land. Some farmer once got some sludge from some city waste treatment plants and they applied that to the land surrounding this huge private lake.

I was working for an Environmental Analytical Laboratory and we were hired to take lake bottom sediment samples and to test them for nitrates and other elements. Not sure what all the parameters they wanted our lab to test for. Heavy metals surely was on the list.

We went out to this lake and dove down to the lake bottom and took some core samples from the muck. Those samples were taken back to the lab and stored and then analyzed.

The guy that hired our lab was pretty high up in the State IDEM Solid Waste or Hazardous Waste Dept. Never did get to see the study results

But I have heard that some farm raised catfish had PCB contamination. Seems that the fish food that they used to feed teh catfish had been contaminated with PCB's.

Fly ash know's no political boundaries. It goes where ever the wind takes it. Fly ash coming out of a 1000ft tall smoke stack at a high velocity and at very high temperature can rise up more than a few thousand feet above the top of the smoke stack and be carried long distances away. But if there is little wind and it's a hot summer day with a temperature inversion in progress those gases won't travel very far before even the ligth weight particle settle out of the air. This is dry depositon. These smoke particles can carry trace amounts of heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic. Over 40 years these trace metals can build up in the soil, lakes and or river surrounding the power plant's smoke stacks.

And then you have the bio accumulation up the food chain effect that can concentrate those heavy metals and pesticide up the food chain.

While the small pond or lake may not be connected to the river system and thus not subjected to the pollutants that are in the river water the fish in a small pond can still contain heavy metals in varying amounts.

Regards,

Moose1am

[idbefishing]

So what is your point Moose? or are you just confirmed what I tried to say. It's safer to consumes farm raised fish.!!!!!!

[WMAMOS]

I'd recommend using Google as a source of information.....not MOOSE.

http://www.wistrout.com/fishsafe.htm

[idbefishing]

quote:
WMAMOS (132 posts)
Sep-06-05, 12:45 PM (EST)
16. "RE: Consumption"
I'd recommend using Google as a source of information.....not MOOSE.
http://www.wistrout.com/fishsafe.htm


Ha ha ha ha....good one Amos.

[Moose1am]

Santerre warns, however, that while data supports the safety and benefits of aquaculture products, consumers should still use caution when eating fish they catch.




Regards,

Moose1am

[Moose1am]

My point is this: It depends on a lot of factores. What feed was used and if that feed was contaminated or not. Where the farm pond is located. Is that pond downwind of a large coal fired power plant or not.

You may be correct that in General the farm raised fish may be safer to eat... meaning that they have LESS pollutants in their flesh.

In fact it's hard to find any thing these days that does not have some contamination in it... including humans. Every one of us has traces of a lot of chemicals in our bodies.

I guess my point is that it's not so clear and it's more complicated that most people think it is.

Here is what I would love to see happen. I would love to see the toxins prevented from getting into the environment in the first place. If not completely stopped then eliminated to a high degree.

I am tired of having to limit my fishing due to the fish being contaminated with mercury and PCB and any other toxin. I wish that we would not have to worry about these toxin in our food. But we can't get that done right now. So I guess we are all forced to reduce our consumption of wild fish that come from polluted waters or switch to a vegetable diet.

I guess my point is that we have too many people getting cancer and dying on us at an early age and I wish that could be prevented.

Regards,

Moose1am

[Guest Author]

Moose, I am in complete agreement with you in two areas. First, your understanding of the technical problem seems sound, given my background as an engineer at a foundry. Lots of "bad boys" to try to control there! Second, and most important to me, we should not have to give up and say: "oh well, that's just the way it is". It is what it is because big business and industry are allowed to cut corners and be irresponsible to to the environment and all its citizens be they human or wildlife. It used to be said that "what is good for General Motors is good for America". That should have said: " . . . is good for their bottom line". That was BS then and it is BS now. Making more profit because of unenforced pollution standards rarely if ever benefits the workers in terms of better wages. It just makes the opportunity for more huge executive bonuses, and for a more cancer-ridden environment. EPA was making inroads on this and similar problems until about 6 years ago. Check to see how many serious fines have been levied against the bad polluters in that time period. Investigate how many standards have been "relaxed". The philosophy of this administration is to allow whatever it takes for business to make higher profits, never mind the terrible toll on citizens in terms of lost, runaway jobs and an environment that is becoming tragically toxic. I have pancreatic cancer (incurable but fortunately slow-growing). Don't know for sure where it came from, but of my 32 years with Chrysler the last 7 were at their foundry where carcinegens and toxic emissions were the price for making the money. No, we should not give up. Fishermen should band together and form Clean Lake or Clean River action groups and start with the State IDEM and work up. Also, we perhaps might consider all of this when we make our big decisions in 2008. Good luck - Tracker Jon

[Moose1am]

I am sorry to hear this sad news. I hope that something can be done to reverse your condiditon.

You are right about the need for fishermen to band together to try to clean up the water's. We should all be in the same boat on this subject.



Regards,

Moose1am