Posted by Bethel News on July 31, 2009, 6:42 am
ALEX DEMARBAN
alex@alaskanewspapers.com
July 28, 2009 at 4:22PM AKST
State and federal officials issued guidelines advising pregnant women and children to limit the amount of northern pike they eat from the Kuskokwim and lower Yukon rivers.
It's the first time a chemical contaminant has prompted consumption limits for a wild meat caught in Alaska, said Lori Verbrugge, the state's environmental public health program manager.
It won't be the last. Guidelines will also be released for pike caught in the upper Yukon and in some Northwest Alaska rivers.
Despite the guidelines, people should not be alarmed, she said.
The state has analyzed mercury in hair samples from more than 80 women who live in villages along the rivers, and the levels have always been far from dangerous, she said.
"These (guidelines) are just to give people an idea of what they can do without worrying at all," she said.
Pike plays a big role in Western Alaska subsistence diets, and many people catch it under the ice with hooks or nets each spring as the fish migrate to shallow spawning areas.
The Alaska Division of Public Health and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are concerned about levels of methylmercury -- the toxic form of mercury -- in the pike.
At high levels, methylmercury can hinder brain development in fetuses, babies and children. The neurotoxin builds up in fish that live for many years and eat other fish, such as older pike, according to a poster containing the guidelines.
Published on the state's Web site Tuesday, the guidelines are more restrictive on the lower Yukon, where pike have higher methylmercury levels, said Verbrugge.
For pregnant women and children 12 and under, the agencies recommend:
* For lower Yukon pike of any size, or for Kuskokwim pike greater than 2 feet, eating no more than eight meals a month if fresh, or one meal a month if dried.
*For Kuskokwim pike shorter than 2 feet, eating no more than 16 meals a month if fresh, or four meals a month if dried.
Mercury arrives in the rivers from several sources, including global air pollution from burning fuels and garbage, mining runoff, forest fires and volcanoes, according to the poster.
In wetlands, it’s transformed by bacteria into methylmercury.
Scientists speculate that methylmercury levels are higher in lower Yukon pike because that drainage contains more wetlands, said Angela Matz, a USFWS environmental contaminants biologist.
The guidelines stem from a study done in 2005 and 2006, when biologists sampled 163 pike from 11 sites in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.
Following their work on the Kuskokwim and lower Yukon rivers, biologists also studied methylmercury levels in pike from other areas of the state, such as Northwest Alaska and the upper Yukon, Matz said.
A poster with guidelines for those areas will probably be released in December, she said.
The guidelines are meant to provide a level of safety to at-risk groups, the poster says.
The agencies encourage elders, men and teenage boys to eat unlimited amounts of pike, and points out that all species of salmon can be safely eaten in unlimited amounts.
To learn more, visit http://www.epi.hss.state.ak.us/eh/fish/YKD%20pike%20mercury%20poster.pdf.
Alex DeMarban can be reached at 907-348-2444 or 800-770-9830, ext. 444.
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