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It doesn’t have to be said that people want their fish to be clean.
But unfortunately, things don’t always work out the way we want them to in the world of large-scale fishing.
Research from the University of California, Davis, found that a surprising number of fish in California and Indonesia fish markets is contaminated with either plastic or fibrous materials.
In fact, in a survey of 64 fish at fish markets in Half Moon Bay and Princeton, CA, and 76 fish in Makassar, Indonesia, about 25% of these fish were contaminated.
These fish had ingested plastic or fibrous material at some point, and it was found in their digestive systems.
The main difference wasn’t in how much was found in these fish, but the material found in them.
In California, 80% of the waste found in fish was fibrous. In Indonesia, all of the debris was plastic.
This raises concerns both of how we deal with our waste, and our quickly dwindling food supply.
The authors of the report write:
“The ubiquity of anthropogenic marine debris and the toxicity of chemicals associated with the material have begun to raise concerns regarding how the ingestion of anthropogenic debris by marine animals may impact human health.
“These concerns have prompted a concerted effort from government and private organizations to assess the impacts of marine debris on human and environmental health.”
Now that the effort has been made, it’s time to start thinking of how to do something about it.
It’s also important to realize that these aren’t fish who were tainted in a fish farm or deliberately contaminated. These are wild fish, who swallowed pollution in the ocean.
These fish will be most harmful in places like Indonesia, where fish are commonly eaten whole, such as Indonesia.
