Is farmed seafood as nutritious as fish harvested in the wild?
Q. What is methylmercury? A. Methylmercury is an organic form of mercury that can accumulate in the lean tissue of seafood (muscle), particularly in predatory fish species that eat a lot of other fish for food. Methylmercury is a neurotoxin that can adversely affect the brain and nervous system at high exposure levels. Children and the developing fetus are especially vulnerable to its effects. Q. How does methylmercury get into our food? A. Mercury finds its way into the aquatic food chain when naturally occurring mercury (such as from underwater volcanoes or rock surrounding bodies of water) or mercury from air pollutants leaches into or is deposited into oceans, lakes, rivers and streams. Once in the water, bacteria transform the mercury into methylmercury. Fish can absorb methylmercury from the water and ingest it when eating plankton or other smaller fish. Predatory species of fish, such as shark and swordfish, can accumulate mercury from eating a lot of other fish. Q. What’s Healt
