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Dolphins and Mercury

Posted on December 20, 2009  |  Author: Dr. Richard Nahas  |  Category: General  |  5 Comments

I just finised watching The Cove.  It is a documentary film that was made as part of a covert operation at a tightly guarded secret location in a little village in Japan where over 23,000 dolphins every year have been slaughtered.  It is a great piece of filmmaking - and activism.

The reason for this operation is to harvest show dolphins for Sea World and dozens of 'swim with dolphins' operations around the world. Swimming with dolphins makes people feel good, and studies have even documented an anti-depressant effect that lasts for days. 

It appears to be partly related to the sound waves that dolphins create in their heads, with a highly specialized bone that creates a kind of sonar they use to navigate.  These sound waves seem to create alpha waves in the brain that are associated with well-being.

The show dolphins that are selected for this purpose are worth over $150,000.  Those that don't make the cut get slaughtered and their meat is sold in the village.  This depressing farce is made even more obscene when we are told by the film's narrators about the mercury in dolphin meat.

In Canada and the US, the 'legal' limit of mercury in seafood is 1 part per million - or 1 microgram per gram.  Most canned tuna and many other fish contain more than this, but this is not the point. 

Dolphin meat contains 2000 parts per million of mercury.  My jaw dropped when I heard this number.  It is not that surprising, really, when one considers that they are at the top of the oceanic food chain. 

I actually laughed out loud when I learned what the dolphin 'fishermen' have been doing to win over the townsfolk - they donate the dolphin meat to provide free lunches for the local schoolchildren.

This is the same country that hid the mercury poisoning at Minamata Bay that killed and maimed thousands of people in the 1950s.  I talked about that mass poisoning and Minamata disease - the name given to mercury-related neurotoxicity - at a lecture I gave recently at a medical conference on mercury.  It is surprising how little most physicians know about mercury.

We take mercury, lead and other toxic metals out of people with chelation therapy.  This has made me very interested in the overall subject of detoxification - and why we have all these poisons in our bodies in the first place.  So I was happy to find out about  www.GotMercury.org, a website that raises awareness about how toxic seafood has become.

I never would have eaten it anyway, but I now know that dolphin meat is highly toxic.  I also advise our patients to avoid tuna, swordfish, marlin, shark and many other large fish that have very high mercury levels.  That's right - don't eat tuna.

This is a bit of a sad story, but we should end it on a high note - it appears that the overwhelming public response to the film has made a difference.  There does not appear to be a dolphin slaughter at The Cove this year.

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Comments

S on Thu Dec 24 2009 at 5:42 pm

Is there a vegetarian substitute to fish consumption that would do away with exploitation of these aquatic creatures? It is stupid and unfortunate that nations continue to let people slaughter these creatures in the name of health and nutrition!

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Cindy Moxness on Thu Feb 04 2010 at 2:22 pm

Thank you Dr. Nahas for the very helpful and interesting info that you provide for us patients. I feel so blessed to have you as my doctor. Didn't eat much canned tuna but now I won't at all. I heard that flaked tuna had less mercury than sold white canned tuna. Probably best to just avoid at all right?

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Thomas on Sat Feb 20 2010 at 6:53 pm

I recommend a book on this topic by Dr. Jane Hightower, M.D. : "Diagnosis: Mercury. Money, Politics, & Poison" (2009)

She found many of her patients experiencing a cluster of symptoms including fatigue, headache, hair loss difficulty concentrating ("fish fog") etc. were big fish eaters of high food chain fish e.g. Tuna, Swordfish etc.

In the book, she also points out that the North American standards on safe mercury levels come from flawed research data following the (U.S. supplied) mercury contaminated grain poisonings in Iraq (1971, during the time of Saddam Hussein). And furthermore, that the U.S. research done there was made in part by a DOW scientist at the same time DOW was facing a big mercury law suit in Ontario (1971). The results of that research--according to Hightower--ended up helping to resolve that very lawsuit.

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Dr. Richard Nahas on Tue Feb 23 2010 at 1:25 pm

I have spoken with Dr Hightower at several meetings about this important problem. She has seen extremely high levels of mercury in her patients in San Francisco due to overconsumption of fish. The dark history of mercury pollution in Canada was documented in research on the Cree population and I consider it a factor in the high prevalence of diabetes and psychiatric issues facing First Nations Canadians

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Carole on Thu Feb 25 2010 at 4:54 pm

Another subject worth looking into further. Do you have information on Haddock?
I've always hated tuna, so your recomendation not to eat it is great with me.
Thank you again for your insite.

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