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February 2006 WHAT’S ON THE HOOK? MERCURY LEVELS AND FISH CONSUMPTION SURVEYED AT A GULF OF MEXICO FISHING RODEO Kimberly Warner Jacqueline Savitz ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: We wish to thank the organizers of the 73rd Annual Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, particularly Pat Troup, Mike Thomas, and the anglers, the National Seafood Inspection Lab, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, and the invaluable assistance of Dr. Bob Shipp, Dr. Sean Powers, Melissa Powers, the hard working DISL graduate students and Oceana staff, including Gib Brogan, Phil Kline, Mike Hirshfield, Suzanne Garrett, Bianca Delille, Sam Haswell, Heather Ryan and Dawn Winalski. TABLE OF CONTENTS: 4 Executive Summary 5 Major Findings 6 Recommendations 8 Introduction 10 Results 10 Mercury Levels 14 Fish Consumption 16 Fish Consumption and Mercury Levels 18 Recommendations 19 Methods 20 Appendices 20 Table A1 Raw Mercury Data 25 Table A2 Gulf Comparisons 30 Table A3 US EPA Risk-based Consumption Guideline 31 Endnotes EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In the past few years, seafood lovers have become increasingly concerned about mercury levels in Gulf of Mexico fish. Unfortunately, anglers have not had the in- formation they need to help them decide which fish may be safer to eat, despite the fact that recreational anglers and their families typically eat more fish than the average population. In fact, recent studies have found that people who live in coastal areas of the United States have higher levels of mercury in their blood than residents from inland areas.1 The purpose of this report is to help provide infor- mation to recreational anglers in the Gulf of Mexico on which fish may be higher in mercury than others, which would be safer to eat, and which species are in need of further monitoring.
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