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posted by martyb on Monday June 01 2020, @12:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the fin-ished! dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Florida International University [(FiU)] marine biology Ph.D. student Laura Garcia Barcia—collaborating with a team from the United States and Hong Kong—conducted the first study measuring levels of toxic mercury in shark fins sold in Asian markets. The team found the samples all had staggeringly high amounts of mercury that are dangerous to human health—far surpassing guidelines and legal limits set by the Hong Kong Center for Food Safety.

"The results were astonishing," Garcia Barcia said. "The mercury levels are super high and, on average, 6 to 10 times higher than what a safe level of mercury would be considered in Hong Kong."

The team examined 267 shark fin trimmings from the[sic] nine of the most common shark species in the fin trade, testing each one for levels of total mercury and methyl-mercury—the organic, highly toxic form of mercury. The concentrations in each shark fin sampled for this study exceeded the maximum legal limit in Hong Kong of 0.5 parts per million.

The highest of 55.52 parts per million came from a great hammerhead. The lowest level found in the fins sampled was 0.02 parts per million from a blue shark—the most common species found in the trade.

[...] FIU marine scientist Demian Chapman, co-author of the study, said exceeding these limits isn't just a health concern—it's actually illegal. The Hong Kong Food Adulteration Legislation states anyone who sells a food product with levels above the legal limit can face fines and criminal charges.

[...] "Not every human cares about eating an animal that's endangered. But every human is worried about their health," Chapman said. "That could be a very powerful driver of change in the future."

More information: Laura Garcia Barcia et al. Mercury and arsenic in processed fins from nine of the most traded shark species in the Hong Kong and China dried seafood markets: The potential health risks of shark fin soup, Marine Pollution Bulletin (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111281


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @12:14AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @12:14AM (#1001553)

    "The mercury levels are super high", says dumb blonde scientist, "therefore you should join PETA."

  • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @12:17AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @12:17AM (#1001555)

    "Can you break a twenty?"

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @12:45AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @12:45AM (#1001562)

    Chinese food is evolving into new levels of creativity. Or in mercury case, going back to the classics. Shark fin soup, Emperor Qin Shi Huang [wikipedia.org] style.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @03:23AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @03:23AM (#1001588)

      > Chinese food is evolving into new levels of creativity.

      Nope, they are still copying the US... Check out food adulteration post Civil War (100+ years ago), it got completely out of hand: chalk in milk to restore color from dilution with dirty water, wood shavings sold as spices, copper compounds to make canned peas look nice and green, etc, etc. Started to end with Teddy Roosevelt, when we started inspecting meat and eventually we got the FDA and other food inspection regulations.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @02:22AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @02:22AM (#1001576)

    Shark fin soup is not so much a health food as a status food, served to impress guests at banquets. The mercury doesn’t matter, because it is expensive it still impresses like a bottle of dom perignon

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday June 01 2020, @03:43AM (4 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Monday June 01 2020, @03:43AM (#1001592) Journal

    How did mercury get into the shark fins? The summary doesn't say, but I surmise it has to be industrial pollution. Predation is known to concentrate the kinds of pollutants that linger in the body.

    As to this particular pollutant, mercury, usage has declined because it is recognized as toxic. Mercury used to be part of a dental amalgam. Filling cavities with that stuff is, I hear, no big deal to patients. The person who is really in trouble is the dentist, having to work with that stuff all day long. Other popular uses of mercury were thermometers, tilt switches, and fluorescent lights, all of which are fine until broken. Alcohol works fine in thermometers, LEDs have replaced fluorescent lighting, and as for tilt switches, there are lots of other electricity conducting liquids that can be used instead of mercury. Another use of mercury I've heard about is for mining of other heavy metals, especially gold. A final one is as a telescope mirror. Set a big pool of mercury spinning at a steady rate, and it forms a concave shape that is excellent as a mirror.

    There are alternatives for all these uses. It's only nations with lax regulations and backwards tech that still employ mercury for any of those uses.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Monday June 01 2020, @07:17AM

      by Bot (3902) on Monday June 01 2020, @07:17AM (#1001634) Journal

      How did mercury get into the shark fins?

      Yeah, who vaxxed the sharks? come out, scum.

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      Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 2) by Bot on Monday June 01 2020, @07:20AM

      by Bot (3902) on Monday June 01 2020, @07:20AM (#1001635) Journal

      some pretty reputable dentists here say ceramic > resins > titanium > mercury

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      Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @01:16PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @01:16PM (#1001678)

      Right, but the trouble is that mercury isn't excreted by the body.

      That means, that the shark eats fish that have mercury in them, it builds up in the shark, shark dies, the fish eat the dead shark, the mercury builds back up in the fish.

      Its the circlllllllllllllle, the circle of liiiiiiiiiife!

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 02 2020, @03:18AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 02 2020, @03:18AM (#1002022) Journal

      How did mercury get into the shark fins?

      I wonder if mercury is unusually concentrated in shark fins? That would be a novel biological aspect to this. Reading around, it is well known that sharks accumulate persistent toxins like mercury in their tissues, including cartilage. They aren't a good animal to eat.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @05:10AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @05:10AM (#1001609)

    This is just another example of the fucked up priorities in our country and the extreme white privilege. White people are the ones eating shark as a delicacy, not black people, who continue to be victims of extreme inequality. We're concerned about a bit of mercury in a delicacy for rich white people but ignore all the black lives that are lost as the hands of racist white cops. The United States is truly a sick country. This is why the protests are necessary. Of course, white people complain about any aspect of the protests that might inconvenience them even slightly, because they want the protests to be easier for ignore. Wake up, people! It's horribly wrong that we're concerned about mercury levels in a delicacy for rich white people but not about the countless lives of unarmed black people that are ended at the hands of racist white cops. Black lives matter!

    • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by Bot on Monday June 01 2020, @07:24AM (2 children)

      by Bot (3902) on Monday June 01 2020, @07:24AM (#1001636) Journal

      White men eating shark fins at a banquet while black man suffer, collecting cotton.

      This is your brain on BLM.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @04:40PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @04:40PM (#1001763)

        Shouldn't that be "Yellow men eating shark fins at a banquet while black man suffer, collecting cotton"?

        • (Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday June 03 2020, @11:28AM

          by Bot (3902) on Wednesday June 03 2020, @11:28AM (#1002679) Journal

          Being anti yellow plus anti white would make them black supremacists, which would raise the hypocrisy to frankly intolerable levels and distract to the Soros fueled white genocide objective. Whether the opposition to Soros is genuine or it plays good cop bad cop with the globalists, remains to be seen.

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          Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @07:43AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @07:43AM (#1001643)
    I note the scientist used the word "endangered", meaning the population size has become so small and is now close to a critical point after which the species is likely to become non-viable and eventually extinct. It seems he was talking about hammerhead sharks becoming endangered by being used in shark fin soup.

    However, in East Asia, large numbers of hammerhead sharks still regularly travel together along certain fixed routes between Malaysia and the north of Japan. If you go scuba diving or even just snorkeling on any part of those fixed routes you can see them easily, usually drifting along at around 15-25m depth in the fast-moving current. Because the routes are fixed and there are large numbers of hammerheads to be found on them makes them easy and economical to fish.

    Despite the extensive fishing of hammerheads in East Asia, there are still similarly large numbers to be seen on those fixed routes as in previous decades. There is one particular place on a hammerhead route (that I am not going to mention because of no need for more tourists) that gets huge numbers of hammerheads per year and accounts for a significant fraction of the overall hammerhead population movement in East Asia. The numbers at that point have not changed significantly in the last 30 years according to local fishermen and my own observations as a regular visitor. The hammerheads are not endangered in East Asia.

    • (Score: 2) by Bot on Monday June 01 2020, @01:48PM

      by Bot (3902) on Monday June 01 2020, @01:48PM (#1001685) Journal

      Stating the obvious but:

      In Soviet waters, a shark's fin endangers YOU!!!

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