Swordfish no longer offered by Red Lobster

[dizzy]

John and the gang,
I like swordfish. The taste reminds me of porkchops. I used to eat it with some regularity at Reb Lobster as it was almost always on the menu. A few months ago I noticed it wasn't showing up anymore. I asked my waitress why not and she took the question to the manager. The answer is that the mercury levels have reached such high levels, that Red Lobster decided to pull it from the restaurant's menu. I don't believe the problem was related to supply although it must be getting harder to find also. I don't believe swordfish is the only species experiencing this problem either. Rest assured the problem must be serious for Red Lobster to take this action. About the only fresh fish they now usually have is salmon, trout, and tilapia.

 

[Anonymous]

It is a big problem. The Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific gives out a card outlining what food species we should, and should not, buy, whether ordering out on cooking for ourselves. I'll try to find mine and scan it. Included on the list of fish to avoid? Farm-raised salmon. Why? Because the genetically manipulated fish are mingling with wild stocks.

 

[kylen]

The issue of farm raised salmon goes much deeper than just co-mingling with wild stocks. The issue of habitat destruction, disease and fish lice are of equal importance. Many areas of the west coast of British Columbia are becoming wastelands because of the amount of fish/food waste and medications to control disease. What about the curtains of fish lice that are attacking wild juvenile salmon? Complete runs of wild salmon are being decimated.

One more thing...how does the farmed salmon get that nice orange color that wild salmon has? You got it, chemical dyes. Farmed salmon is a bland gray naturally.

This food fishery sounds eerily similar to that of the Philippines. And we think our society is much more advanced?

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you for rounding out the picture, kylen.

I am now reminded of the commercial shrimp farming operations I've read about (only once, though) in Mexico, destroying some prime habitat and creating similar pollution and pathogen issues.

 

[John_Brandt]

John and the gang,
I like swordfish. The taste reminds me of porkchops. I used to eat it with some regularity at Reb Lobster as it was almost always on the menu.

Mitch, try the pork chops. They will remind you of swordfish.

 

[dizzy]

John and the gang,
I like swordfish. The taste reminds me of porkchops. I used to eat it with some regularity at Reb Lobster as it was almost always on the menu.

Mitch, try the pork chops. They will remind you of swordfish.

John,
I gave up meat because I thought fish was supposed to be healthier.

 

[John_Brandt]

Mitch,

I would say that is mostly true. But I don't care how unhealthy it is to eat NY Strip steak, because I'm gonna eat it anyway.

FWIW, it's not unhealthy to eat swordfish in moderation. But as far as fishing pressure, swordfish are fully exploited. There are few really large individuals remaining in the seas.

 

[Bill2]

If it's so healthy why did they tell my wife to ONLY eat top level fish twice a week at most when she was pregnant. Makes you think!

 

[jamesw]

Eating top marine predators of all types is a no-no now. Sharks, large tuna and swordfish - all have elevated levels of mercury...

Cheers
James

 

[John_Brandt]

Did you notice I used the qualifier: in moderation?

That there is an elevated level of mercury in some fish does not directly negate the fact that it is still good for your health. In moderation!!!

 

[Anonymous]

AOTP's Seafood Wallet Card is here:

http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/CONSER ... allet.html

actually a better site is Monterey's

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp

 

[John_Brandt]

From the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Fish-Depression.html

 

[squeezix]

To hell with mercury levels. That's what we get for taking the largest predators from the ocean.

I don't eat swordfish from restaurants. I only eat from my friends and my catch, here's why:

People like Ernest Hemingway and his followers harvested the biggest and the best of the Billfish for trophies. They took the largest of the breeding stock from the oceans for their own pleasure, thus creating a demand for such fish.

These days a large Sword is 250 lbs. Most fisherman know that a trophy adult is about 600 lbs. You can thank the consumer market for this. Many pelagics concentrate mercury in their tissue. BFD, you reap what you sow. It's not pollution, these animals have mercury in their flesh and if you want to eat them, you eat the mercury. Heavy metals tend to stay in organisms that eat other organisms with heavy metals. This is not due to pollution. These metals are present in every bit of our environment.

You dose Strontium and Magnesium, these substances can be vary bad for you as well in the wrong concentrations.

 

[coralite1]

I am surprised no one has mentioned biomagnification. This is the process whereby organism at the bottom of a food chain, ie phytoplankton, contains similar concentrations of elements as the water they swim in. This level of mercury, per se, is not toxic but an animal, say a zooplankton, eats alot of phytoplankton and increases the concentration of heavy metals in its tissues. the process repeats itself to accumulate in long lived top predator species like tuna, billfish and the like. On a similar note, the transfer of energy from the bottom to the top of the food chain is highly inefficient. It takes 10,000 lbs of phytoplankton to make 1 lb of tuna. Eating animals at the top of the food chain is like driving an SUV and if you want to compare it to terrestrial species, it is akin to eating bears, lions and tigers. You know how scarce top level terrestrial predators are. If we ate the terrestrial equivalent of tuna and swordfish, you would eat puma steak and bobcat burgers. At least for awhile cause then they would all be gone.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, but.....jeez, man, I dunno if I can get to liking phytoplankton. :|

 

[Anonymous]

Just needs some Lea and Perrin's

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/20/healt ... 0PATT.html


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May 20, 2003
Patterns: New Look at Fish and Pregnancy
By JOHN O'NEIL


The mercury in ordinary saltwater fish eaten by pregnant women does not appear to affect their children, according to a study published on Friday in The Lancet.

An earlier study of among Inuits in the Faeroe Islands found that children of women with higher mercury levels were more likely to have impaired language or attention skills at age 7.

The new study was done on the islands of the Seychelles, where the diet is heavy in common ocean-going fish. By contrast, the Faeroe Islanders ate large amounts of whale meat, which contains more than five times as much mercury as the species of fish eaten by the Seychellois, as well as blubber, which contains high levels of other toxins like PCB's, said Dr. Gary J. Myers of the University of Rochester, the lead author of the new study.

The women in the Seychelles ate fish an average of 12 times a week, compared with an average of one meal or fewer a week for Americans. The Seychelles women had higher levels of mercury in their hair, six parts per million, than the Faeroe Island women, whose levels averaged four parts per million, or the average American, whose average level is below one part per million, Dr. Myers said.

The researchers gave 663 children born in the Seychelles a battery of developmental tests over nine years. They found that children whose mothers had higher mercury levels scored slightly higher on one test and slightly lower on another, but had no difference on most scores.

"There is no evidence that eating fish with standard levels of mercury causes harm to the fetus," Dr. Myers said. He added that freshwater fish could have higher levels of mercury and other toxins, and that consumers should follow health advisories.

 

[My Hairy Ass]

But surely the tendency among Faroe Islanders for wearing bobbly hats has a great deal to do with it?

 

[dizzy]

When the temperature reaches 100degrees F the Seychelles women's hair stands straight up. :lol: