Noblewi Health Tips and Advice

The consumption of fish and seafood is a contentious issue at the best of times; even vegetarians do sometimes eat fish due to both the fact that fish seem further removed [than mammals] from our idea of sentient beings, and also because we know that Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are needed for human health. But I think there are some very real health and ethical reasons to completely stop eating fish and other seafood right now, particularly for people who do actually eat fish regularly.

Why? Well, because the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is a huge disaster that will have a long-term effect on the environment.

I won’t pretend to know much about how to stop the leak (I’m sure there are already ample armchair experts). However, even once it is stopped we will still have a significant clean-up job on our hands, and the pollution will remain for some time.

Do not ignore the issues because the US government has disallowed fishing in the water that is being directly affected by the oil spill. We are not ‘off the hook’ so to speak. What happens under the surface of the water is not obvious to the eye of a casual observer.

We have two serious issues to examine when we decide whether we are comfortable eating fish and shellfish: firstly what types of toxins could find their way into seafood, and secondly what would be the effects of overfishing in the remaining good fishing locations to make up for the shortfall in the supply of fish?

In terms of toxins, we have a number of different substances polluting oil affected waters which have the ability to build up in fish and shellfish. Firstly we have crude oil and secondly we have the dispersant being used, currently Corexit 9500. Corexit 9500 is a highly poisonous substance, roughly four times more poisonous than oil. Crude oil contains both mercury and lead, which are highly poisonous heavy metals. Crude oil also includes benzene, toluene and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), all of which have been recognised as causing cancer. Research is being conducted as to whether PAH can accumulate in fish, but at the very least it has been shown that it does accumulate in shellfish.

Heavy metals (such as mercury and lead) dispersed in water accumulates in the bodies of fish as the water is filtered through the fish’s respiratory system. Additionally predatory fish tend to eat other fish, resulting in a greater heavy metal load. By the time a larger fish, prized by humans as a tasty morsel, is caught and sold as human food the heavy metals have been recycled and accumulated many times over.

Mercury is associated with brain impairments, both degenerative in adults and the development of autism and chromosomal disorders (such as Down’s syndrome) in children. Mercury crosses the placenta in pregnant mothers and has its greatest effect on babies and children due to being significantly more concentrated.

Lead has been proven to be harmful even in the smallest doses tested on laboratory animals. No minimum quantity of lead has ever been accepted as safe. It affects the brain, the reproductive system, the nervous system and the kidneys, especially in children due to the higher level of concentration. Lead has been associated with low IQ, slow growth and hearing defects in children.

The chemical dispersant, Corexit 9500, used by BP to try to break up the oil from the surface of the water is known to be both more toxic and also less effective than other chemical disbursants, requiring a stronger application. I feel that we have a case of misaligned corporate ethics coming into this situation as Corexit 9500 was reputedly banned in Britain over a decade ago due to its highly toxic affects on both the environment and people. How ‘British’ Petroleum ended up with such a large supply then I do not know.

The exact contents of Corexit 9500 are a trade secret, but it is already known to be very poisonous, affecting children most of all due to their smaller size. Its use in such quantities and at such oceanic depths has never before been tested, however it is known that Corexit 9500 increases in toxicity as it heats up, and that oil tends to increase the temperature of water. At this time over 600,000 gallons of Corexit 9500 have been utilised in an attempt to clean up the oil spill. Expected health effects are respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders.

Clearly the sea-creatures living in and around the Gulf of Mexico are going to be off the menu for some time. The government won’t willingly allow people to eat contaminated seafood right?

The answer is both yes and no. The govenment might not willingly allow fish to be caught from the worst polluted areas, but there will be a significant pressure to allow fishing in other areas nearby. The Gulf Coast is responsible for about half of the total US harvest in its high season. Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico is an estimated $2.4 billion industry, which is an invaluable addition to USA’s GDP especially given the current recession. Additionally, if the demand for fish does not reduce, the supply of fish from other waters nearby will need to increase.

Do not also forget that some fish are highly migratory, particularly deep ocean fish, sometimes travelling up to 200 miles for feeding and reproduction. It is not possible to identify whether any individual fish has ever come into contact with the oil or the disbursant that is choking the Gulf of Mexico area.

Health issues aside, there is a secondary issue which will begin to affect other fishing areas. That is overfishing. Overfishing is when commercial fishing operations catch so many fish that the remaining population of fish are not able to increase their numbers enough to replace the number that have been caught. As it is, overfishing has already been a global issue for some time and according to overfishing.org, almost 80% of the world’s fisheries are fully to over-exploited, depleted or in a state of collapse, and over 90% of the stocks of large predatory fish stocks are already gone. If we do not do something about it, we are approaching a situation where some fish may become endangered species. By increasing demand for fish from areas that normally have fewer fish numbers, we are simultaneously speeding up the rate at which the population of fish from that area declines.

Overfishing also directly impacts the animals and birds who reside in a particular area. As food becomes sparse, ocean mammals and birds will either go hungry or spend more time in fishing waters trying to catch fish to eat. These animals can then be caught in the fishing nets themselves, and if unable to free themselves will be killed and then discarded from the fishing haul.

So while those of us who are not yet affected by the disaster in the USA can sit back and watch everything unfold, it will be our fish stock that will be systematically removed from the oceans to make up for the shortfall in US fishing.

In my opinion the only way that we can both avoid the health issues from eating fish, and take an ethical stance against overfishing in our own backyards is to completely avoid eating fish or their byproducts. Lean protein can be easily obtained by land animals and plants, and so consumption of fish is not needed. We need to look into getting our EFAs from other sources such as flaxseeds, spirulina, chlorella and phytoplankton. Fortunately, fish do not create their own EFAs, but instead break down the EFAs in the microalgae food that they consume. Humans are able to do the same, and so we can replace fish in the diet with supplemental sources of EFA. There are a number of good supplements that are already being manufactured for vegans who wish to increase their consumption EFAs. Personally I have switched from using fish oil capsules as supplements, to marine phytoplanton supplementation.

Want to find out more about health, then visit Petra Smirnoff’s site on how to choose the healthiest diet for your needs.

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