mercury – Southern Fried Science

Hacking Extinction, fishing for hagfish, itchy crabs, clam cavalcades, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: June 4, 2018

June 4, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Hacking extinction. Conservation X Labs is looking for bold ideas for technological solutions to conservation challenges. Up to $90,000 in grant awards to bring your prototype to life! Applications open until June 30.
NOAA is looking for Science Communication specialists! Job call is open until June 7.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

These clams.

Project Azorian: The story of the Hughes Glomar Explorer. Straight from the CIA to you, some details redacted. Still one of the wildest and weirdest ocean stories in the history of the United States.
The Alongside Wildlife Foundation has awarded its first set of grants! What a great group of people and projects.
This crab has an itch that it just can’t scratch.

The hunt for Soviet submarines, a 5-foot-long shipworm, the impossibilities of deep-sea mining, and more! Massive Monday Morning Salvage: March 5, 2018.

March 5, 2018March 4, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Subscribe to the Chesapeake Bay Journal (it’s free)! The venerable grey lady of the Bay survived the EPA’s attempt to defund them. Consider sending a few dollars to the journal, too. If you’re filing MD taxes this year, you can earmark some of you return to Chesapeake Bay programs.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

The secret on the ocean floor: the wild, weird origin of the modern deep-sea mining industry, complete with spies, Soviet submarines, and Howard Hughes. How much is real? How much is emergent from this first fake venture? If you only read one thing about deep-sea mining, read this.

We really misled a lot of people and it’s surprising that the story held together for so long”

source.

As biodiversity declines, so does public attention. We need to push back against this trend.
After Centuries of Searching, Scientists Finally Find the Mysterious Giant Shipworm Alive!

Farting oysters, bombing sea lions, and a new trash island? It must be the Monday Morning Salvage! November 20, 2017

November 20, 2017 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

It’s Native American History Month. Southern Fried Science recognizes that our servers are housed on the occupied land of the Timpanogos people while the majority of our writers live on unceded Powhatan territory. This November, Try Something New: Decolonize Your Mind.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Boaters stumble on massive Caribbean “gyre” of plastic garbage. “Gyre is in quotes because I’m almost certain that this is debris from the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season, rather than an accumulation of decades of plastic is a circulating ocean current. It’s still shocking to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSMGKwZBaWM

The ARA San Juan, one or Argentina’s two diesel-electric submarines, is missing. Search and rescue is mobilizing and there’s hints that the sailors tried to send out a signal Saturday.
Without a Treaty to Share the Arctic, Greedy Countries Will Destroy It. Cosign.

What is it about mercury? Thinking about chemicals in the public discourse

February 9, 2016February 9, 2016 Bluegrass Blue Crab 1 Comment

Education, Science

All of the revelations about the lead in the water system of Flint, Michigan have made residents and curious neighbors alike wonder ‘haven’t we solved the lead problem’? There are thousands of well-established scientific studies; the sources and even many of the solutions are well-understood and frequently implemented. Not to say the problem’s gone, but we’ve wrapped are heads around it. So how is it possible that a new lead problem has surprisingly reared its ugly head? And more importantly, what does that mean for exposure to chemicals for which we’ve barely scratched the scientific surface?

The world of fisheries has its analog – mercury. We’ve all heard the recommendations for pregnant women and small children to avoid tilefish, swordfish, mackerel, and shark. We understand that it bioaccumulates in the food chain – and that as humans not exactly at the bottom, we’re susceptible. The dynamics of methylmercury (the poison variety) and elemental mercury are fairly well mapped out and we can identify areas of potential hazard where more methylmercury is likely to be naturally created. We’ve also stopped doing things like spraying mercury-based pesticides and covering our landscape and foodscape with the toxin. Kids have even stopped playing with ‘quicksilver’, it’s been removed from dental fillings and vaccines, and you should get rid of that mercury-based thermometer. Yet, if you scanned most people’s hair (the way we measure these things), there would be mercury present. And there’s still a host of ways they might have been exposed. But the better question is – if there’s still mercury in your body, what else is floating around in your system? And why do we focus on only the best-understood pathway of chemical exposure?

Modern Mercury Exposures

Good fish, bad fish: new draft FDA guidance considering mercury exposures

June 12, 2014June 13, 2014 Bluegrass Blue Crab 2 Comments

Uncategorized

After years of scaring pregnant women away from fishy nutrition, the FDA is finally updating its recommendations to encourage them to eat 8-12 ounces of low-mercury fish a week. That’s 2 or 3 meals per week in order to support fetal growth and development. Curious about what fish are low mercury? Stay away from tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico, swordfish, shark, and king mackerel and limit albacore tuna to 6 ounces a week. Better options include “some of the most commonly eaten fish such as shrimp, pollock, salmon, canned light tuna, tilapia, catfish, and cod”. For locally caught fish, you should check with your local authorities. The new recommendations aren’t final – read the draft and write in if you want more information that would help you make safe and healthy seafood choices. Here’s some things you should consider.

Nothing to plunder – the evolution of Somalia’s pirate nation

February 11, 2011February 17, 2011 Andrew Thaler 12 Comments

Uncategorized

The droughts that shook the east African nations in the mid-1970’s and again in the 1980’s decimated the traditional nomadic clans of Somalia, leaving them without live stock to feed their families. Tens of thousands of the dispossessed, primarily of the Hawiye clan, were relocated to coastal areas. Fishing communities took root and began to flourish. With over 3000 km of coastline, rich with rock lobster and large pelagic fish, these communities grew, perhaps even thrived. Then, as is often the narrative of African nations, came civil war.

Weekly dose of TED – Stephen Palumbi: Following the mercury trail

January 7, 2011January 7, 2011 Andrew Thaler

Conservation, Science

For 2011 we’re going to do a bit more with our Weekly dose of TED series. Instead of just posting a video each week, we’re going to include a short discussion of either the entire talk or a point that could be expanded. The idea that, when it comes to seafood, we may not know … Read More “Weekly dose of TED – Stephen Palumbi: Following the mercury trail” »

Compact Fluorescent Lights, Energy, and Mercury

September 25, 2010September 26, 2010 Andrew Thaler 38 Comments

Conservation, Science

We recieved several responses to Dave’s post this week on the bizarre “Save the Light Bulb” movement. A movement that seeks to ban energy efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFL) and return to the old, energy expensive, incandescent bulbs. The primary critique is that CFL’s contain mercury, and thus, any environmental benefit is negated by mercury exposure when the bulbs break or are thrown out.

Why mercury and PCBs?

June 16, 2010June 16, 2010 Bluegrass Blue Crab

Science

A while back I reviewed the many seafood guides and the various ways they rank seafood choices. They do share one thing in common, however, and that’s the special denotation of certain species as hazardous to human health because of toxin load. Specifically, high levels of mercury and PCBs as found by an Environmental Defense study.

First, kudos to EDF for making their data have immediate impact. Other studies of toxins in fish have sat around for literally decades before becoming part of the mainstream discourse about fisheries. But it does beg the question, what makes mercury and PCBs so important among the myriad toxins in our oceans and our seafood?

Read More “Why mercury and PCBs?” »

The Cove, Dolphins, and Mercury

March 15, 2010October 20, 2011 Bluegrass Blue Crab 6 Comments

Popular Culture, Science

The Cove has recently collected a long list of awards including most notably an Oscar for best documentary. These well-deserved accolades reward the filmmakers for risky and groundbreaking filming in a highly protected cove in Japan where a dolphin fishery thrives, both to feed the aquarium trade and citizens wishing to enjoy a dolphin dinner. However, I caution viewers, as with most works of art that rely heavily on scientific information, that you should use the movie as inspiration but turn to the scientific literature for accurate information, especially in terms of mercury concerns within the dolphins. Mercury poisoning is scary, but it is only one amongst a long and growing list of toxicological concern. Its effects are relatively well-understood and known to be primarily of concern for pregnant women and small children.