[cool][#0000ff]Front page news in the Salt Lake Tribune this morning. More fish from around the state are being found with "unsafe" levels of methyl mercury...including Jordanelle brown trout and perch.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][url "http://www.sltrib.com/ci_5091592"]LINK TO ARTICLE[/url][/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The one thing pointed out in the article is that the results are from small samplings of only a few fish, and may not be all that accurate throughout the fish populations of an entire water.[/#0000ff]
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Thanks for the info TB -- I guess I'm glad that I caught & ate that Brown Trout from Jordanelle this week -- the next one's I'll be releasing since I don't want to jeopardize my child bearing year's!!
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[cool][#0000ff]As the article stated, there was a very small sampling. However, it is better to be safe than sorry. Mercury is nasty stuff.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]On the flip side, if fish contain enough mercury we can use them for thermometers. Please, no spines on the rectal ones.[/#0000ff]
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Yuck......... and some of us thought the yellow grubs in the Jordanelle perch meat was bad. Seriously, this is sobering news. Lets hope they get the final reports done faster than the Utah lake PCB study, so we can make informed decisions.
In the mean time, maybe it is a good thing that the Lake X perch fishing has been slow.
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[cool][#0000ff]As bad as it seems, there are many places around the country where things are MUCH worse.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When I was on a temporary work assignment in the New Orleans area a few years ago, it was common knowledge that the Mississippi River running through New Orleans was a "chemical soup". That mighty river picks up the agricultural and industrial byproducts of several states and by the time it dumps into the Gulf of Mexico, in Louisiana, it is pretty bad.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]One of the jokes down there is that night fishing is easy. You don't even need to take a lantern because all the fish glow in the dark.[/#0000ff]
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[cool]Man, that sucks. Glad that I don't ever fish Joes Valley. That's really a high level of mercury. I guess it makes sense on Jordanelle too when you think about all of the silver mining that used to go on up on Park City, that stuff has to go downhill somewhere... I might still eat fish from there though, just not that often...
I'm anxiously awaiting the PCB reports from Utah Lake's gamefish. What's crazy is that it's now 2007 and they are JUST BARELY testing the fish from this state the last year or two? Why did it take Utah so long to get with the times? Even in Rural Nevada it's been common Knowledge that the fish that come from the Carson River and drainage have very high levels of Mercury-this has been known since the 80's, and now here we are 20 years later and Utah is finally getting with the times...[crazy] They should have tested for this two decades ago at least...
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[cool][#0000ff]Anything that has to do with government, and costs money, doesn't happen fast.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The only reason the carp were tested for contaminants was as part of the survey to find commercial uses for them during the eradication process...for the June Sucker recovery program. A fed program...about money.[/#0000ff]
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Isn't it funny (
I mean), that money rules the world.
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Just an FYI all that mercury comes from the gold processing plants in Nevada. They grind up a ton of ore, then apply the mercury, the mercury loves gold, so it entraps it. They then filter out the mercury covered gold, and boil off the liquid. Unfortunately for us, all that boiled off mercury enters the atmosphere, and we get down winded! The
thing is that the EPA does not require these mining outfits to put in any type of mercury scrubbers. It is totally voluntary! Rediculous if you ask me![mad]
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Very much! We need to send them our toxic waste in return.[sly]
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[cool][#0000bf]WHAT? Maybe bomb them with a few loads of Utah Lake carp?[/#0000bf]
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Bee,
You don't have ANY of your facts straight on the mercury issue. The gold is extracted form the ore by using a solution cotaining sodium cyanide. The cyanide dissolves gold & other metals like silver & mercury as well. When the metals dissolved from the ore are stripped from the cyanide solution and smelted the mercury evaporates into a gas at smelting temperatures. I don't think there is a gold mine / processing facility in operation today that doesn't have a mercury retort setup in place to capture mercury. Unfortunately such hasn't always been the case.
Another source of mercury in the atmosphere today is the roasters in use at some of the gold mines to oxidize the ores to make the more amenable to cyanide leaching. At roasting temperature, mercury evaporates into a gas that is captured by mercury retorts but not 100%.
I'd be willing to bet that more mercury was used right here in Utah in places like Ophir & Mercur and down in the Tintic mining district in the past as has been used in Nevada since the beginning of this latest gold boom.
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Last year I seen them testing for this stuff on about every week or two, and when I ask they would say just routine but one of the workers said don't eat the fish...
And they had been testing for three years so far....
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They have been testing in Utah for nearly 30 years now. It's just not always consistant. As they have more money or the Feds require them to, they test.
Take the scenic ride on the Alpine loop.. You will notice posted signs that say DO NOT EAT the fish. These signs vary from location to location some say it is OK in small amounts for ADULT males, but women of child bearing years should avoid eating the fish as well as children.
It is our heritage because of our forfathers greed. Whats the solution? I haven't a clue. But clean isn't cheap and we will all be paying for it some form or another.
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Utah is not alone with the mercury issue. A hot spot is developing in a plume around the north Nevada smelters. Many of the southern Idaho fishing holes were all ready high in mercury and recently were pushed well over the limit. Once again a few folks get rich and the rest of us pay the price. I doubt it will stop and this will most likely force lots of catch and release fishing. I dont care to ruin any of those hard working mining folks livelyhoods but ruining all the intermountain west fisheries is not acceptable. To me what is the difference if they started testing nukes and we caught the fall out. The result is still the same. Our land gets poisoned. If this goes on it will spread into the upper colorado water shed and that would have a huge affect on the future of fishing in the west. Its time to start pressuring the state. But the gold fields generate big money and I dont know it it is a fight that can have an acceptable out come.
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[cool][#0000ff]This article has been circulated and discussed among the members of the Utah Anglers Coalition. Thought I would share the response from Dan Potts, of the Salt Lake County Fish & Game:[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]"[#000000]UAC members,
Although Jeff Salt, the GSL Keeper has been warning us for some time of this danger, I think it is important to put this issue in perspective. If whole fish are being used in these lab tests then they may NOT representative of the nature of danger, since in most of us are not eating the entire fish. Many tests have yielded different levels of such contaminants in different parts of the fish. Fatty tissue has tended to have the highest levels of heavy metals, pesticides, etc.
Regardless of the ultimate "whole fish" results of any sample size, the UAC needs to take the cautious, conservative approach of promoting ways of consuming fish in ways that are MORE likely to reduce contaminants, period!
Filleting, removal of obvious (dorsal, ventral, and lateral) fatty tissues before cooking, and methods of melting fat away from the meat during the cooking process (such as placing the fillets skin-side down to cook) are all techniques that should greatly reduce the risks.
To get a better idea of how helpful these techniques will ultimately be, we need to have these agencies who are having these fishes/waters tested do "meat-only" testing, along with the whole fish tests that may be the norm now. Plus, as our inhouse expert, Mr. Salt, has long recommended, we need to promote testing of mercury levels in human hair (especially of anglers using specific waters for consumptive purposes) to determine "hot spots" of
mercury contamination.
I personally have been eating fish from waters like Utah Lake for years now, but have followed my own recommendations on preparation. I would be a willing volunteer to find out what my own mercury levels might be.
Dan-the-fisherman
PS. Many of us believe that the ultimate statewide display of mercury hotspots will be a classic "down-wind-ers" array from the probable polluters, several gold processers in Nevada. Let's move quickly to fix this problem as gravity does its best to pull these "heavy" metals down and out of circulation."[/#000000]
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I think I've just converted from 'selective harvest' to 'catch-and-release'. [unsure]
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you're not alone cat_man, I've been a 'catch and release' fisherman for years now.
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Yes, I have to agree greed is definitely problematic. Unfortunately human society is materialistic. Gold is something people can live without. This is not an essential resource for survival or pleasure even. Yes, humans are sophisticated in contemporary times......they need things outside of basic resources necessary for survival. We got pop culture....movies, tv, theater, music, fashion, sports, including outdoor recreation, intellectual pursuits, you name it. Yes, we have socially constructed the necessity for certain things.......like how can one propose without a diamond ring, for example. It just has such a powerful connotation that can't be substituted. But does anyone really need to have a gold bracelet? Or 30 gold earrings? Necklaces? Further, is it worth poisoning our environment that we live in? Because ultimately, if our environment becomes too poisonous due to our greed we won't even survive on that basic level.
[cool][#0000ff]We may not survive...but we will sure look good in that casket with all the "bling".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I'm takin' mine with me.[/#0000ff]
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