If you’re a reef keeper and you use the Internet, there is a good change you’ve been reading about mercury (chemical symbol Hg) lately. Mercury and marine life are terms that are used in the same sentence quite often, but usually we are talking about mercury within seafood. Years ago, concern about mercury in fish tissue led to a drop in fish/shellfish consumption within the U.S. Now we know that the benefits of eating seafood greatly outweigh the risks of mercury poisoning. This mercury discussion was a little bit different, as it involved the possibility of extraordinarily high levels of mercury within frozen fish food. Of course this would be bad news for aquarists, who rely on frozen fish food to supply nutrition to beloved and often very expensive marine fish. Personally, I’ve fed frozen foods exclusively for years, so when I heard that they may contain high levels of mercury, I sat up and took notice. It began when Thomas Brown, the man behind Thomas Brown’s Reef Visions reported that a university he hired to test 3 top selling frozen food brands, reported high levels of phosphate, silica and mercury. The mercury reading was worth noting, largely because it was roughly 22,000 times higher than the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) safe consumption level. Aquarists were worried and at first glance, I was too. That was until award winning journalist Ret Talbot got on the case. Ret found that some traces of mercury within frozen fish food was possible, as seafood is known to carry mercury. The element bio-accumulates within fish and shellfish tissue over time, making it a mainstay in most seafood. Ret found that mercury measuring equipment would be unlikely to identify such a high concentration, largely because the person testing for mercury wouldn’t calibrate it to detect such a high concentration. Something must have been wrong with the test, right? Even in the face of essentially being debunked, Thomas Brown stood by his findings. Something fishy?:
A few things about the Thomas Brown mercury disclosure were strange. One, Brown refused to release the name of the frozen food brand where mercury was discovered. He also refused to release the name of the “university” where testing was performed. More alarming, he refused to release any document from testing, such as a broken down analysis of the findings. Brown has promised them, but not until further testing takes place, which he claims could be weeks.… More:
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