3609 Hwy 24 (Ocean) | Newport, North Carolina 28570

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2004

Frank Tursi, Cape Lookout Coastkeeper
252-393-8185
lookoutkeeper@nccoast.org

Herb Stanford, president
Saltwater Light Tackle Fishing Club
252-240-0346
stanford@gbinetwork.com

NCCF and Fishing Group
Team Up On Mercury Project

     Ocean, NC – Recreational anglers will help the N.C. Coastal Federation collect popular saltwater fish for what could be one of the most comprehensive studies of mercury contamination ever attempted in North Carolina.
     Members of the Saltwater Light Tackle Fishing Club, most of whose members live in Carteret County, will catch flounder, red and black drum, dolphin and black sea bass. Other fishermen are also urged to participate.
     The fish will be sent to the Environmental Quality Institute at the University of North Carolina at Asheville where they will be tested for mercury contamination. Scientists at the lab will test as many as 100 fish from across the state, ranging from mountain trout to flounder. The Federation's three Coastkeepers and most of the state's seven Riverkeepers will supply the fish.
     The Waterkeepers' Alliance, a national environmental group that licenses Riverkeepers, Coastkeepers and the like, is sponsoring the mercury study. Its member groups from other states will supply at least 500 more fish for the study.
     "Lots of states have done these fish studies over the years, but we'll be receiving a large number of fish simultaneously from all over the country," noted Richard Maas, the co-director of the Environmental Quality Institute. "This is also the first study to consciously correlate fish mercury levels with atmospheric deposition."
     The study will attempt to determine if fish caught near known sources of mercury emission have higher concentrations of mercury in their tissue than those caught far from industrial sources. Coal-fired power plants are the largest single source of mercury emissions in the United States.
     The state health director will also use the fish supplied by the Federation's Coastkeepers to determine whether additional health warnings are needed, noted Frank Tursi, Federation's Cape Lookout Coastkeeper.
     Results from the study could help educate people about the dangers of mercury and help guide local waterkeepers, Tursi said. "The study will help us arm people in our communities with the information they need to make informed choices about the fish they eat," he said. "It will also tell us something about the mercury levels in surrounding waters."
     It's information that all recreational fishermen should know, said Herb Stanford, the president of the fishing club. "As a recreational fishing club, we have been aware of the
problems with mercury and other biohazards in game fish and want to make any contribution we can to improve our knowledge of these problems and, hopefully, help solve them," he said.
     Other recreational or commercial fishermen in Carteret, Onslow, or Pamlico counties who would like to supply fish should call Tursi at 252-393-8185 or email him at lookoutkeeper@nccoast.org.
     North Carolina, like most states, has warned people about eating certain types of fish because of high mercury levels. People should limit their consumption of shark, swordfish, tilefish, or king mackerel caught off the state's coast and of bowfin, largemouth bass, and chain pickerel caught in freshwater rivers and lakes south and east of Interstate 85.
     Nationwide, such fish advisories for mercury cover 12 million acres, or 30 percent, of U.S. lakes and 453,000 miles of rivers. The number of state mercury advisories has more than doubled, to 45 states, since 1993.
     A recent Centers for Disease Control report estimates that 12 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age and up to 630,000 children born each year suffer from unsafe levels of mercury in their bodies. Exposure to high levels of mercury can damage the brains of unborn or young children. Prenatal exposure to mercury can affect the way children think, learn, and problem-solve later in life. That's why many of the advisories are stronger for pregnant women and young children who are more sensitive to the toxic effects of mercury.
     Highly toxic forms of mercury such as methylmercury are created when mercury is released directly into the water or fall from the sky from airborne emissions. Fish living in contaminated water store mercury in muscle and fat where, over time, it accumulates to dangerous levels. Long-lived fish high up the food chain have the highest levels.
     "We know that large predators like shark, king mackerel and largemouth bass can be unsafe because of mercury. The state has done those test," Tursi said. "We assume from limited studies that smaller but more popular table fare like flounder are safer. But we don't really know that because no one in North Carolina has looked very hard. This study should begin to fill the gap."