Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the Wildlife & Endangered Species Category
Click here to view all posts

Southern California’s Asian communities aim to weed out toxic fish

Posted by: Maven on July 5, 2009 at 6:33 am

From the Fresno Bee:

John Fallan’s trained eye scans rows of iceboxes brimming with tiger fish and shrimp in a Vietnamese supermarket, searching for one pesky fish that threatens the health of seafood lovers. Authorities say the white croaker has become a popular catch in local Asian communities. But when reeled in off a stretch of California’s coastline southwest of Los Angeles, the fish has been laced with cancer-causing toxins stored from decades of chemical dumps near the scenic shore.

Fallan leads a team of wardens from the California Department of Fish and Game to hunt down the white croaker on fishing piers, landings and in Vietnamese and Chinese markets across Southern California, where in recent years the silvery, fatty fish could be found in droves. “It’s a massive effort,” said Fallan, a lieutenant specialist with the department. “We can’t keep up with all these markets and restaurants and retailers.”

Between the 1950s and 1970s, Montrose Chemical Corp. – the world’s largest producer of DDT – and other companies released tons of the pesticide into sewers that emptied into the Pacific Ocean off the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Other companies discharged chemical compounds known as PCBs. Federal and state government agencies sued them in 1990, and $140 million in settlements is being used to find the fish and reduce the effects of the pollution.

Eating white croaker poses potential harm to humans because it doesn’t metabolize pollutants like other fish off Southern California’s coast, said Michael Franklin, a marine biology professor at California State University, Northridge.

Read more from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.

July 5, 2009 · Filed Under Wildlife & Endangered Species

Comments

Leave a Reply