CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON, SEA SHEPHERD SOCIETY
It looks like the fish are turning the tables on humanity. Not by choice but because ecological realities have boomeranged back upon humankind.
Tins of tuna fish now contain warnings that the product should not be eaten by pregnant women or young children because of high levels of mercury and other toxic heavy metals. The tuna companies and the government have decided that men and non-pregnant women are expendable. Anything to protect the unborn fetus, of course. After we’re born, we’re on our own to play toxic roulette.
Farm raised salmon contain antibiotics, growth hormones and even a dye to color the flesh a pleasing pink while still alive.
Long living fish like halibut, cod, orange roughy and swordfish contain large amounts of heavy metals. When you can live over a century like a halibut, you accumulate decades of toxins. When you live high up on the food chain, you build up mercury and other heavy metals.
Orcas in the Pacific Northwest are the most chemically contaminated animals in the world. Beluga whales in the St. Lawrence are treated as toxic waste when they die.
We treat the oceans like sewers and then act surprised that the fish that is eaten is polluted.
If you flushed your toilet through your refrigerator every morning, dousing all your food with fecal material and urine, would you then have that food for lunch or dinner?
Humans can be willfully blind and deliberately ignorant when it comes to food. We would never eat a piece of fish sitting in a bowl of mercury, arsenic and PCB’s garnished with a lump of human fecal material on top. Yet when the lump of crap is brushed off and the toxins washed away, we serve that lump of sautéed toxic fish flesh up without a thought of what has penetrated the cells of the meat.
The federal government of Canada has just allocated $190,000 to investigate the impact of traditional fish diets on West coast native communities.
Canadian Inuit have exceptionally high levels of toxic contaminants in their bodies because of their traditional reliance on whales and seals. The study currently being undertaken on Canada’s West coast will reveal how high the level of contaminants are among Pacific Northwest First Nations.
I predict that the study will reveal that over 100 West coast aboriginal communities are indeed facing a crisis of increasing levels of toxicity in the fish they eat.
This crisis is not one created by the activities of most Native people but is the consequence of mining, logging, sewage, manufacturing and salmon farming. Clear-cutting, agricultural run-off and mine tailings are actions that invite ecological consequences.
The chemical stew includes dioxins, furans, PCBs, flame retardants and DDT, mercury, arsenic and lead, all of which can accumulate in the bodies of humans and animals.
Quatsino First Nation Chief Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi, who was raised in the traditional style on the northwest tip of the island, said in a recent interview that that in a recent seven-day period, she ate salmon and crab on four of the days.
Unfortunately for the Chief and her people this is no longer a healthy diet.
On the other side of the world in the Faeroe Islands about halfway between Iceland and Scotland, the level of mercury toxicity in the brains of Faeroese children is the highest in the world. Mercury literally eats away brain tissue. Faeroese health officials are now the world’s experts on Minamata disease which is the name given to mercury poisoning.
I myself was raised in a fishing village on Canada’s East coast. The staples of my childhood were lobster, scallops, clams, cod, flounder, and smelts. We did not eat mussels because they were considered dirty. Today the restaurants in my hometown serve mussels because they are the most common shellfish that remains. They are even dirtier today than they were three decades ago.
It is hard to have an appetite for clams when the mud they are being dug from reeks of raw purplish oozing sewage.
I’ve given up “seafood”. I don’t have the ability of disassociation needed to separate the realities of over-exploitation and toxicity from the food that I eat.
And eating the flesh of mammals and birds instead still does not alleviate the pressure on marine wildlife. More than 50% of the biomass taken from the sea is converted to fish meal to be fed to domesticated land animals. We have literally converted herbaceous mammals like cows, sheep, pigs and sheep into the world’s foremost aquatic predators.
The main staple of the puffin in the North Sea, the sand eel, has been so overly exploited by Danish fisheries for animal feed that puffins have starved by the thousands.
A great percentage of the fish caught off Chile goes to feed the ever-expanding populations of farmed salmon. It takes dozens of fish snatched from the sea to raise just one farmed raised Atlantic salmon.
The number of domestic housecats throughout the world actually consume more tuna than all the world’s seals combined.
This kind of biological upheaval in feeding patterns is having serious environmental consequences.
And then to add insult to injury, humans point an accusatory finger at seals, dolphins, sea-birds and whales and whine that diminished fish populations have been caused by these aquatic predators. At the same time they suggest that humans are innocently just trying to feed their families and enjoy a prawn cocktail.
This disassociation has gone so far that recently a branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals attempted to host a live crab boil where they would have inflicted cruelty on some sea-animals to raise funds to prevent cruelty to cute and cuddly land animals.
We humans can justify anything and everything we do.
In the end, nature bats last, and the fish are having their revenge as the natural reaction to our ecologically criminal actions kicks into high gear.
But telling people that smoking causes cancer does not deter some people from smoking and telling people that eating fish can kill you will most likely not deter some people from eating fish.
They prefer to continue playing toxic roulette.
Captain Paul Watson is the Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The ships operated by the Sea Shepherd Society serve only vegan meals.
Paulwatson@earthlink.net www.Seashepherd.org

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DR STEPHEN JUAN, KULY 14, 2006
It is now 50 years since the most horrific mercury poisoning disaster the world has ever seen took place in Minamata, Japan.
In May 1956, four patients from the city of Minamata on the west coast of the southern Japanese island of Kyushu were admitted to hospital with the same severe and baffling symptoms. They suffered from very high fever, convulsions, psychosis, loss of consciousness, coma, and finally death.
Soon afterwards, 13 other patients from fishing villages near Minamata suffered the same symptoms and also died. As time went on, more and more people became sick and many died. Doctors were puzzled by the strange symptoms and terribly alarmed. It was finally determined that the cause was mercury poisoning.
Mercury was in the waste product dumped into Minamata Bay on a massive scale by a chemical plant. The mercury contaminated fish living in Minamata Bay. People ate the fish, were themselves contaminated, and became ill. Local bird life as well as domesticate animals also perished. In all, 900 people died and 2,265 people were certified as having directly suffered from mercury poisoning – now known as Minamata disease.
Beyond this, victims who recovered were often socially ostracised, as were members of their families. It was wrongly believed by many people in the community that the illness was contagious.
The chemical plant was suspected of being the culprit in the environmental disaster almost from the beginning of the illness outbreak, yet speaking out against the chemical plant was forbidden. The plant was a major employer and enjoyed considerable economic and political clout all the way to the national government.
Defenders of the chemical plant argued that it must be innocent since the plant had been in operation since 1907 without previous problems. It manufactured fertilizer.
A riot by local fisherman in 1959 finally moved the government to investigate the cause of the illnesses and deaths. Even so, it took officials 12 years from the first deaths to finally admit the cause of the contamination and order a halt to the mercury dumping into Minamata Bay.
Yet the Minamata disaster story is still not over. In 2006, in the Seishin Shinkeigaku Zasshi, Dr K Eto from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment and the National Institute for Minamata Disease, writes that: “Over the years, new facts have gradually surfaced, especially after 1995, with the resolution of the political problems surrounding Minamata disease”.
For example, the mystery as to why the first 50 years of plant operation brought forth no disaster has been recently solved. It has been revealed that the plant modified its operations in August 1951 and started dumping large amounts of mercury directly into Minamata Bay only from that time.
The health of survivors and their children are being monitored. A permanent museum and annual community ceremonies commemorate the worst mercury poisoning environmental disaster ever. Today, 50 years on, the lessons of Minamata remain.
Interesting facts
* During his relatively long lifetime, Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), perhaps the greatest scientist that ever lived, suffered two serious bouts of uncharacteristically erratic behavior. Some historians believe he suffered from a mild form of mercury poisoning. They point out that Newton was conducting experiments with mercury at the time of both occurrences.
* Mercury was used in the haberdashery industry into the 20th century. Hat makers were known to often suffer mental illnesses although the source of such illnesses was unknown. This is the basis of the name of the “Mad Hatter” character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
Stephen Juan, Ph.D. is an anthropologist at the University of Sydney. Email your Odd Body questions to s.juan@edfac.usyd.edu.au

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DIANE DIETZ, THE REGISTER GUARD, JUNE 27, 2006
The last of Oregon’s commercial mercury mines shut down years ago, yet mining is still the major source of mercury pollution in the state’s waterways.
Mercury-laced waters pouring from abandoned mine tunnels and washing out of old mine tailings piles have made it unhealthy to eat a steady diet of some Oregon fish.
Douglas County’s Cooper and Plat I reservoirs and Lane County’s Dorena and Cottage Grove reservoirs are tainted with mercury caused, in part, by the work of miners.
It’s all legacy now.
Mercury mining ceased in the United States 14 years ago, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Driven by health worries, manufacturers have replaced mercury in thermometers, auto battery switches and paint. Recyclers produce much of the mercury that’s still needed. Domestic consumption continues to drop.
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The mercury in Cottage Grove Lake originates from cinnabar, a naturally occurring ore in Oregon mountains.
At the old mercury mines, such as Black Butte in Lane County and Bonanza in Douglas County, waste mercury-tainted tailings washed into creeks and lakes. In the murky depths, bacteria convert the mercury into a dangerous form: methylmercury.
Plants and bugs draw in this form of mercury, and fish take it on when they eat the plants and bugs. It doesn’t kill the fish. Rather, it concentrates in their muscle tissue.
The accumulation stops at the top of the food chain. In the case of fishing, that’s the bodies of human beings who eat the fish.
Mass poisoning that came to light in the mid-1950s in Japan showed what consuming mercury-laden fish can do. A resin company dumped 27 tons of mercury into Minamata Bay over a 30-year period. More than 3,000 people who ate fish from the bay suffered severe neurological damage. Their children were born with crippling birth defects.
Just this April, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi formally apologized to the victims because the government waited decades to stop the pollution.
The fish in Minamata Bay “were 20 to 40 times more contaminated” than Cottage Grove Lake fish, state toxicologist Dave Stone said, but even small amounts can be a risk for children and fetuses.
Methylmercury can be carried in the blood of a pregnant woman to a developing child, can travel through breast milk to a nursing child, can enter the mouth on the fingers of an infant, can enter the bloodstream through the stomach and can pass through the protective blood-brain barrier.
Researchers link exposure to even small amounts of methlymercury to developmental deficits in children, including delayed walking and impaired language, memory and attention span.

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JAPAN TIMES, JUNE 20, 2006
People with Minamata disease still face discrimination and prejudice half a century after the official recognition of the mercury-poisoning disease, they said at a public forum in Tokyo.
Speaking at the forum Sunday — in which more than 100 people, including patients and their supporters, took part — Hideki Sato, 51, head of a patients group, said there still are people who hesitate to reveal the disease, once considered rare and infectious, out of fear of discrimination.
“We want people to be aware that the disease is the origin of Japan’s pollution history,” said Sato, from Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture.
The disease was caused by Chisso Corp., which discharged mercury-tainted waste water into Minamata Bay and contaminated fish used as food. The city of Minamata marked the 50th anniversary of the official recognition of the disease May 1.
Yukimi Kuramoto, 51, who grew up in the city, said: “I have been refused by hospitals in Chiba nine times when I showed a document that I am a Minamata disease patient. . . . They said they cannot take responsibility for treating me.
“One doctor even said, ‘Isn’t that an endemic disease? Go back to Minamata and go to a local hospital,’ ” she added.

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June 9 (Bloomberg) — Hideki Sato was a toddler when the cats in his native Minamata city started “dancing” in the streets. He was 13 before Japan’s government said pollution was to blame and chemical company Chisso Corp. stopped dumping methyl mercury in the bay. By then, 1,573 people were dead or dying.
Supreme Court Ruling
The country’s Supreme Court, the highest judicial arbiter, ruled that the government failed to prevent the disease from spreading. Some people who don’t meet the official classification standard also should be recognized as victims, it said.
About 1,000 people filed suit in Kumamoto District Court in October, seeking 8.5 million yen ($75,600) each from the national and local governments and Chisso, according to Hirofumi Masuda, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
Two other suits are being prepared, Masuda said, and more may be filed if the current case is successful. Sato, whose compensation application was rejected, said he may be one of them.
“The bureaucrats in Tokyo seem to think Minamata disease is a thing of the past,” said Hironori Yamaguchi, a plaintiff in the October suit. “But for us, it’s very real.”
Yamaguchi, a 52-year-old construction worker from Goshoura, an island town near Minamata Bay, said his fingers are deformed and increasingly numb because of mercury poisoning. He keeps the television on when he goes to bed at night to drown out a constant ringing in his ears, he said.
Hurling Against Walls
Domestic cats that began jumping and hurling themselves against walls alerted the people of Minamata in 1956. A 5-year- old girl was among the first human victims that year. A Kumamoto University team suggested pollution may be the culprit.
Tokyo-based Chisso had been making acetaldehyde, a chemical used in synthetic resins, since the 1930s. Methyl mercury, a byproduct, was released into the bay with wastewater.
The company stopped producing acetaldehyde in 1968, four months before the government confirmed that mercury was causing the illnesses. Similar poisoning was reported in Niigata city northwestern Japan in 1965
Chisso now makes liquid crystal compounds and fertilizer chemicals in Minamata. It paid 300 billion yen to compensate some victims and to clean up the environment, said Toshiya Horio, a spokesman.
The company also spends about 2.4 billion yen each year on medical care for some sufferers, Horio said. Chisso executives visit Minamata every year to express their remorse.
One-Off Settlement
In 1995, Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama offered a one-off settlement to about 2,000 people who had sued for compensation. About 11,000 victims then qualified for 2.6 million yen each from Chisso. The national and local governments agreed to pay their medical expenses.
In addition, 2,453 people receive free medical care under a program that began in October, said Shigekazu Komoto, a spokesman at the Environment Ministry’s Special Environmental Disease Office. In return, they agreed not to sue.
The government doesn’t recognize them as Minamata disease victims, Komoto said. “But we give them free medical care anyway to help them put their minds at ease,” he said.
The panel that classifies Minamata victims has been dormant since 2004, when members’ terms expired, said Miwako Konno, an Environment Ministry spokeswoman. The government won’t broaden its definition of the disease, she said.
`Chaos’
“The government doesn’t have a coherent policy,” said Ekino, the professor. “They refuse to acknowledge scientific data. The whole thing is chaos.”
The Kumamoto government declared Minamata Bay clean in 1997, removing a net that had prevented fish from leaving the area since 1974. Fish from the bay now are sold in western Japan, said Yoshito Tanaka, a deputy director at the prefecture.
Many sick people in Minamata are reluctant to complain because Chisso remains a major employer and their relatives work at its factory, said Toshio Oishi, 66, who also joined the October suit.
Oishi, who worked at Chisso for 18 years, said he has lost his sense of pain and taste. “I could get into boiling water and not feel a thing,” he said.
To contact the reporter for this story:
Tak Kumakura in Tokyo at tkumakura@bloomberg.net.

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