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Yes, mercury is everywhere and just like there is no safe cigarette,
thus no safe fish to eat free from contaminates either for the
extremist. I do support the fight to remove contaminants. I
posted the article, as the best example in writing I've found from the view
of a sport fisherman. He expresses the realistic approach taken by
most sport fishers to eat cleaner fillets. The contaminant testing is
deliberately done in the most bias way to scare people much as
possible. Do you eat the heads, guts, and fat? Most
people don't.
There are two examples of fish advisory hype promoted by local
fishers.
1. Higher fish contaminant hype equals better fishing.
Example is White Lake during the peak years of the
Hooker Chemical Co hype. More tourist stayed away, less fishing pressure,
thus the natural fish grew larger, and we had great fishing. Yes, a
bit selfish.
2. Some of our lakes need more large predators to control
exploding forage and exotic fish.
Example is the muskie that is the only predator large
enough to take on tons of large shad sheapshead, etc and at 42" legal size
probably contaminated. Play up the hype! The large muskies live
20+ years, grow to huge trophy size, and are far too valuable to be killed and
eaten. They help balance the lake and provide a catch-release trophy
fishery repeated many times over.
We need to remove every contaminant possible from the lake food
chain. Warn the public in more honest way to the potential contaminant
risks. Enjoy fishing and all the healthy benefits of eating
fish. |