Our World and Everything in It

WXYZ posted new safety guidelines for eating fish caught in Michigan. I knew that no one is supposed to eat catfish or carp from in or around the Detroit River, but I didn’t know that all other fish was to be limited to one meal per MONTH? That’s been a rule for 20 years.

The new rules state that kids under 15 or child bearing women should never eat any small mouth bass or walleye over 18 inches. And do not eat carp, catfish, or white bass from the Saginaw Bay and River and Tittabawassee River.

 

I went to the Fish Advisory website at michigan.gov and read about how lake fish should be cooked:

 

Cut off all the fat.

Remove or poke holes in the fish’s skin before cooking. This will help the fat and chemicals to drain off the fish.

Bake, broil, or grill the fish on a rack. Throw away the drippings.

Do not eat the guts, head, skin, bones, or dark fatty areas.

Do not re-use the oil that was used to deep or pan fry the fish.

 

Sorry, but these directions remind me of a label on a bottle of pesticide where it says to use gloves, do not get on skin, in eyes, or mouth, wash everything thoroughly, do not use sprayer for anything else, etc.

The most important thing I did read was: Mercury stays in the filet of the fish and cannot be cut or cooked away. Use the MDCH guides to choose fish that are low in mercury.

After reading this all I could think of is my husband’s friend, an avid fisherman, who tossed mercury off as something that can just be cut away. I didn’t think so, but you can’t talk to a fisherman. This one happens to be single, so at least he’s not taking it home to the kids.

 

http://www.wxyz.com/alnews/local/story.aspx?content_id=7d15f21b-a073-4604-afc5-4d09431d1952

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/FishAdvisory03_67354_7.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you like the taste of shrimp, crab, or grouper that you can only get along America’s southern coastline? You might what to savor whatever you can of these seafood delights because Dead Zones are growing around the world.

 

I remember reading about Dead Zones at least 10 years ago. It has now become a chronic problem especially in the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay. The culprit is groundwater runoff from farms that carry fertilizer high in Nitrogen and Phosphorus over hill and dale until it ends up in the ocean waters.

 

Farm fertilizers do their trick in the open waters along our coastlines raising record crops of algae, which in turn rob the water of oxygen, which pretty much kills off all life to the bottom. In 2004 it was documented that there were over 150 dead zones worldwide. Many are recurring dead zones like in the Pacific Northwest.

 

The fact that the U.S. is pushing corn for ethanol is going to make the dead zones grow larger and faster. The New Farm Bill may help alleviate some of the problem because for the first time it allotted millions to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and billions for good land stewardship and protection for wetlands. Still the new Farm Bill cut back on the Conservation Reserve Program. This program paid farmers for not farming areas of their land that acted as buffers against fertilizer runoff. Using that land to grow cash crops is enticing.

 

So the farmer profits from planting more land, while the farmer of the sea will have a decline in profits. Land farming vs. sea farming has an inverse relationship. There has to be a happy medium in the future if we want to continue to enjoy shrimp, crab, and grouper because this is not the way to go. Like the article in U.S. and World Reports says there will be: “more fertilizer in the ground and fewer barriers to stop it.”

 

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2008/06/06/dead-zones-grow-in-the-gulf-of-mexico.html

 

 

Senator Richardville had this to say about the Great Lakes Compact:

 

I don’t know what’s more important to Michigan in regard to its natural resources, but also when you’re talking about the identification of Michigan in the Great Lakes region, than its water. And so what we did today was help protect the Great Lakes water in a way unprecedented in the state of Michigan or really in any of the other Midwestern states we are taking a lead because we are saying loud and clear don’t mess with Michigan’s water.

 

Great rhetoric except our own senate is messing with our water. Influenced by a big farm lobby, they are still planning to allow each industry (bottling, manufacturing, and farming) to be able to siphon off up to 2 million gallons per day without any permits as opposed to the Democratic House that wants limits set at 1 million gallons per day. The idea that water used on farms somehow ends up where it started is a misconception. Plenty of the water is taken up by crops that are shipped elsewhere. Most of our entire daily water intake comes right from the food we eat. Even meat has a really high percentage of water, over 50%. On top of this, and depending on how the water is applied, the evaporation rate can be high. That’s why we’re told it’s just a waste of water to use little oscillating water sprinklers on hot summer days.

 

The senate justifies losing this much water by following the logic of farm lobbyists that think we have no claim to groundwater. What? We have a claim to the Great Lakes that surround us and hit our shores, but not to the water that actually lands on our soil? Groundwater is a major contributor to streams, inland lakes and wetlands, and coastal wetlands. It affects aquatic habitats for plants and animals. Michigan’s fishing industry depends on groundwater flow to streams and lakes.

 

Our smaller streams and rivers are in trouble if this bill passes. The bill will take 25% of the water from these rivers and streams at the height of the summer season when it’s hot and dry, and when these smaller tributaries are already down to a trickle. There will be bone-dry stream and riverbeds if Senate Bill 860 passes.

 

The idea that there won’t be any restrictions up to 2 million gallons per day is bad enough, but this bill allows absolutely no recourse from the public if citizens in a particular area object to their water disappearing down the road. According to a Michigan fisherman blogsite, Mackie’s Bait, “All current users will be grandfathered, including the control structures that maintain lake level stream flows in the rivers Muskegon, the Platte, the Huron, the Clinton, and many more.”You will hear talk about Groundwater Assessment Tools, which are in no way a complete science yet in Michigan. Their are thousands of stream segments types in Michigan and according to the same blogsite, only “230 stream flow gages are in operation across the state.” So how is the senate making an actual quantitative assessment for their decision? 

 

 

http://mackiesbait.com/blog/files/category-great-lakes.php.

 

By signing this Great Lakes Compact, eight states and Canadian provinces unite to try to keep our water here, and our Senate fritters it away, caving to Farm Bureau demands. It won’t come back, and we certainly can’t depend on weather to help us any longer. We had better speak up and fast to our senators that we support the House version of a 1 million gallon per day limit because with Senate bill 860 we’re stuck with the results for good, no argument after the fact. Individuals lose to big industry again. 

As part of the “Strange Days on Planet Earth” by National Geographic that I watched on PBS, was a segment about compounds found in plastic like bisphenol A that leached into a Missouri Tributary, and into the fish and animals in a remote area. Bisphenol A acts like estrogen, and is an endocrine interrupter. It doesn’t take much for this stuff, 30 parts per trillion, to affect estrogen response in fish because they have an extremely sensitive system.

I went to find out more about this because I’ve already written about fish in N.Y. and recently the Potomac River in Washington that have both sexes, have changed gender, or are sexless due to estrogen discharged in the effluents of sewage treatment plants. When I watched this latest presentation about fish in Missouri that are altered by bisphenol A, I thought I would rummage around and found website after website from different places all over the country with gender bender fish.

There was even a study about perch in Michigan’s lakes on jestor @ http://www.jstor.org/pss/3435861. The article listed various endocrine disruptors present in the water like the estrogen from sewage plants but also bisphenol A. Read the article because it states “gonadal intersex was observed in male white perch collected from the Bay of Quinte (22-44%) and Lake St. Clair (45%), [] Intersex was not observed in hatchery-reared white perch or in white perch collected from an uncontaminated reference site (i.e., Deal Lake) in the United States.” So the lower Great Lakes are considered contaminated.

This does not bode well for our water systems. The “Strange Days” series continued about bisphenol A in plastic from which we eat and drink. It’s dangerous for our health. That’s why we’re being told lately not to microwave anything in a plastic container. As for baby bottles it’s really bad news.

The series stated that hormones control genetic programming in developmental stages of life, so babies are really affected by bisphenol A. Heating plastic baby bottle causes 10 times the amount of bisphenol A to leach out. They didn’t have to connect the dots any further. Do not use plastic baby bottles unless it’s documented they don’t contain bisphenol A.

I couldn’t post a blog last night because I lost my dial tone again. It just came back on so I’m getting this out there as fast as I can. I couldn’t research what I wanted to blog about and maybe that’s a good thing because I caught an absolutely fantastic show on WGTE, Toledo Public TV last night as part of their Strange Days on Planet Earth series. Ed Norton narrated current findings relative to global warming that are directly tied to of all things fish and mankind. Like he said no one would ever consider fish as heroes of the global warming battle but after last night’s presentation the realization of how man is so intimately connected to everything on earth, that every little thing we do, every little thing we eat like a sardine, affects us and sometimes in very bad ways that only adds to global warming and loss of more food.

What was showcased is the latest correlation between man and global warming concerns fish. Did you know that Namibia besides being the birthplace of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s baby is also home to one of the world’s richest fisheries? At least Namibia was rich with fish 40 years ago, where millions of tons of fish were processed per year and sold worldwide.
 
Namibia is one of the most productive ocean systems in the world because it enjoys almost constant ocean winds, which churn up nutrients like plankton from the bottom. Sardines love plankton and swarmed the area in the millions. But man over fished the sardines years ago and although Namibia has made a concentrated effort to recover their fish populations, it’s just not happening. Fleets of fishing boats from Europe and other far away places invaded that space and harvested, and harvested, ten million sardines in one month’s time sometimes, without enforced regulations to stifle the pillaging.

So what about sardines you say? As part of another delicate ecosystem that has been disrupted by mankind, the sardine is necessary to insure the plankton does not build up on the ocean floor. Rotting plankton has a very detrimental effect.  Hydrogen sulfide and methane production is the by-product of rotting plankton. Sulfur is that rotten egg smelling gas.

As a result of over fishing sardines, Namibia’s coastline now boasts a strange shift in ocean color on a regular basis. Some call it lemonade, or a whitish ethereal color appears while the horrible stench of rotten eggs is emitted, and then unimaginable amounts of dead fish float up and line the shoreline. With all the over-fishing in our oceans today, we do not need this additional kill off of fish. It’s creating a cycle where we’re going to end up with no fish at all.

Three people figured out what’s happening in Namibia. A marine biologist, Brownen Currie, a satellite expert Scarla Weeks, and an oceanographer Andrew Bakun figured out that deep-sea eruptions were taking place and emitting hydrogen sulfide. Bakun found that deep sea eruptions coincided with desert rain, that atmospheric storms that pass over the ocean’s surface cause pressure on top that translates to pressure at the bottom where the buildup of hydrogen sulfide and methane lay. Eruptions on the ocean floor take place releasing millions of bubbles of the two gases. As methane rises to the surface it expands and becomes explosive.

Experts have known about these eruptions for a while and figured they were isolated incidents, but when Scarla Weeks, a satellite expert became involved a whole other scenario surfaced. From satellite images in space these eruptions were shown to be increasingly more virulent, and are occurring back to back, growing out of control into huge events covering hundreds of kilometers over the ocean.

This is where my eyes bugged out. I wrote a blog about a CO2 explosion at the bottom of a lake in Africa, which resulted in a cloud of gas belching into the night and traveling miles to kill 1700 people. At first, it was thought to be a methane gas explosion like those happening off of Namibia. Then I remembered writing a blog about the first global warming event some 40 million years ago that incinerated the earth. It was caused by a ½ degree in temperature change over a longer period of time than we’re experiencing now. It happened because of constant methane eruptions on the ocean floor from an earth that was still forming.  The atmosphere eventually filled with methane, which is twenty six times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, and the earth fried.

Scientists have always thought that it was impossible for methane or carbon dioxide to build up like that again on the ocean floor due to the constant movement of water. Wrong again. It seems like what we’re facing now is totally new territory. But there are still quite a few obstinate people who will not see that humans are affecting the earth in a myriad of ways that is upsetting the intricate balance of all living things. This is just one of the ways we’ve impacted the earth and helped global warming along. I remember someone I talked to about environmental events brushing off the idea that an increase in earthquakes is tied to global warming. Why not? Now that we know atmospheric pressure on the surface of seawater affects pressure at the bottom of the sea, it’s quite possible that atmospheric pressure can affect pressure below the earth’s surface just as easily, and there are a lot more earthquakes happening lately.

The idea of eating fish because it is healthy for us is starting to resemble the idea of drinking bottled water. We do it for our own health but do not realize the affects of those actions, that it hurts the earth to toss that plastic in a trash dump or along the roadside, every bit as much as over harvesting even the smallest fish. Without strict fishing regulations, new ways of farming fish, (more about that mess in another blog), and a quick attitude change by the human population to conserve, it doesn’t appear there will be enough in the wild to sustain mankind worldwide. 

Read more about methane explosions and Namibia at: http://www.pbs.org/strangedays/episodes/dangerouscatch/experts/stench.html.

 

 On Christmas Eve I think it’s important to remember where the Christ Child was born, AMONG THE ANIMALS in a manger. Every nativity scene is one with animals. A manger in those days was: “a feed trough found in a stable. In Bible times mangers were made from clay mixed with straw or from stones held together with mud; sometimes they were carved in natural outcroppings of rock,” http://www.padfield.com/1999/manger.html. There is an actual picture taken of a manger at Megiddo used in the stables of King Ahab on the linked website.

So the King of Kings was placed in the feed trough of the animals of a stable. This is a quite a statement about the beasts of the earth, that they were worthy of such an event. This Christmas take the time to reflect not only on mankind, but peace for the earth and all of the living things that are in jeopardy of extinction. The “beasts” as in animals of the earth are written about in the old and new testament over 200 times. Their importance is undeniable. We weren’t meant to live in a world without animals, especially those that have been here for centuries that are now in danger.

PEACE

I don’t know if many people are aware that mercury vapor lights are being phased out. I went to get a socket extender at an electrical supply company and the notices were on the counter. It’s due to their mercury content. We pretty much have voluntary disposal policy in Michigan as far as batteries, bulbs, and stuff with mercury in them. I guess they don’t trust us from throwing them into landfills that aren’t designated as toxic. What I really want to know is what’s going on in the minds of those that created the new policy about mercury vapor lights? Have they noticed the large amount of coal-fired plants in Michigan?

The Detroit Free Press just had an article about Michigan’s unwillingness to just stop. Stop building more coal-fired plants. We’ve lost population. The idea of needing 7 more coalburners as the article pointed out is absurd. And Detroit is making a new area downtown for technical type business and hopefully green business. I keep asking what green businesses will buy into a state that supports fossil fuel plants? Luke warm “green” isn’t enticing.  

So I ask you: Is this not a ludicrous ruling—no more mercury vapor lights? Awful lot of farmers in Michigan and people like me with a pole barn with a mercury vapor light illuminating the entire yard out of darkness. I have no problem recycling my vapor lights, but how about regulating the coal-fired plants that some studies estimate dump 2591 lbs. of mercury the atmosphere annually in Michigan. People can dispute all they want. But the state of Michigan “has had a statewide fish consumption advisory for inland lakes since 1988. The advisory warns against eating more than one meal a week of rock bass, perch or crappie over nine inches in length, or any size largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleye, northern pike or muskie from inland lakes. Women of childbearing age and children under age 15 are advised not to eat more than one meal of these fish per month.” While airborne mercury poses no problem, when it hits earth, groundwater, streams, and creeks there is a problem.

Not eat fish more than once a month? That’s a little frightening to me. It tells just how much of that mercury blanketed water. Over a ton of mercury is deposited onto everything in Michigan every year, to me, that means 10 tons of mercury over ten years that doesn’t completely go away. I think we need to step up to plate in Michigan and make the changes that really have an impact on cleaning up our environment and show by example we are in earnest about being a “green” state. And while we’re at it can we please mandate bottle returns on those plastic water bottles?  It drives me nuts knowing they end up in landfills and virtually never break down not in the next few lifetimes anyway.

 If you want to read more about Michigan and mercury this covers just about everything and if it’s not here the people to contact are:http://www.deq.state.mi.us/documents/deq-ess-ECOSMercurySurvey1-10-05final.pdf.     

I happened to turn on The Weather Channel the other night to check on upcoming weather and I stayed on that station awhile. I ended up watching about an hours worth of fascinating travel, weather, climate, and interesting information about the big island of Hawaii. Did you know that the Big Island sports 10 of the world’s 13 climates?

There was beautiful video coverage of the island, all types of info about the wind currents, the climates, and the terrain. It showed the 13 observatories on top of Moana Kea, the highest place to look at the stars. It is the tallest mountain on earth if you consider the part of it under the ocean.  And up there it is a sub arctic climate on this tropical island.

The program showed the Parker Ranch of about 150,000 acres with 50,000 head of cattle and how they’ve managed to be ecological about furnishing water to their cattle. They have diverted fresh mountain water through 75 miles of pipeline to 650 troughs located around the ranch.

Since then I’ve been trying to catch all that The Weather Channel has to offer. There is a program called “Forecast Earth,” “Weather Ventures” like the one about the Big Island, and “It Could Happen Tomorrow” about disasters waiting to happen that are as good as many presented on the Discovery Channel.

I’m telling you about The Weather Channel because many people no longer have premium channels. I know I’ve had people ask me where I saw many of the latest green business innovations on Eco Tech and when I reported it was on The Science Channel, they simply did not have access to it.

Unfortunately people with growing families are watching their expenses and have cut back to basic subscription channels. They don’t get to see all the latest environmental programs out there on premium channels. This is where The Weather Channel is invaluable. It’s a great place for the whole family to view places all around the country and world with all types of info about the climate, wind, animals, plants, and not to mention great cinematography. When I was done watching about the Big Island I wanted to visit there. We’ve been to many of the islands but not the Big Island and that program was my incentive. It was an informational, environmental, travelogue.

To catch the times and days to view some of the programs I’ve mentioned goto:

http://www.weather.com/aboutus/television/programming/?from=secondarynav.

You won’t be disappointed. I just watched part of the feature tonight about the Grand Canyon. Happy viewing.
 

 

That story made the news last week but the event happened in August. Four bottlenose (Flipper) dolphins encircled an injured surfer after a shark attack, bringing him to shore. It’s not the first time dolphins have saved a human. An article stated that dolphins protecting humans goes back to ancient Greece. I told you that to ask you this.

 

Why are we allowing dolphin hunts by a small Japanese village? Dolphins have been friends with humans for centuries and we knowingly allow their slaughter? And this is not about relations with Japan. There are Japanese that want the slaughter banned also. One of the key reasons, and the Japanese government knows this, is that the dolphin meat is contaminated with high levels of mercury.

The Japanese retested the dolphin meat themselves and were surprised.

 

The other reason this event should not be such a big problem to stop is because it is an isolated event. It happens in a cove outside of a small fishing village in Japan called “Taiji.”  Notoriety is building about these fisherman chasing dolphins into a cove where they are trapped by nets in the thousands. Some 20,000 human friendly dolphins are caught and slaughtered. I didn’t want to read about it. There is a video of it on “You Tube.” I guess the poor little guys aren’t always dead when…

 

So this event happens in one small fishing village, not as a custom throughout Japan, and there are Japanese that want it stopped also. The meat is poison, and the Japanese government knows about it. It only a matter of time you might say, meanwhile, Flipper is being stripped alive.

 

This should not be a big problem to fix. This should be about a few talks with Japanese officials urging them to prohibit killing dolphins by a few of their citizens. The argument is there is no market for poison fish anyway. The fisherman should not only be in trouble for killing dolphins this way, but selling mercury tainted meat. Besides, knowing what we know about dolphins, this is as cannibalistic as eating bushmeat. Let me go one step further in adding that the levels of mercury in our friends the dolphins is about as rotten a deal as killing them outright. So we that pollute are no better. And for those that don’t think man pollutes enough to cause change on earth, how did those dolphins get saturated with mercury?

 

Our congress people will not move on this unless we make it known that we want it stopped. The world needs to realize better policy concerning the creatures of earth that are threatened by our pollution. Write your congress people about getting Japan on board to prohibit Taiji from killing dolphins.

 

Read about what I read about at: http://www.savejapandolphins.org/weblog.html

The dolphin rescue story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21689083/

      

Canadian officials announced today that health risks for eating Great Lakes fish are increasing. I have two stories relative to this. First of all, walleye and perch are delicious, and a great natural resource for Michigan. The health risks are associated with what the fish eat, passed onto us when we eat the fish. It’s all a big chain you know. Ever wonder why vegetables are suddenly important enough to be included in dog and cat food? They are both known carnivores (meat eaters). Well when a wild dog or cat eats a bunny, it automatically gets the veggies the bunny ate. So even wild dogs and cats get their veggies one way or another. The fish are getting whatever is being discharged or accumulated in our Great Lakes that are supposed to be clean according to the fish flies. Baloney. I think those fish flies are adapting to pollution.

Anyway, way back in the 80’s, I worked with someone who was an avid fisherman who liked to fish Lake Michigan. His wife did not like to cook, so there was a lot of grilling going on. He grilled all kinds of Great Lakes fish and ate it about 4 times a week. I didn’t pay much attention when he started have digestion problems and had an upper GI looking for the culprit. Nothing turned up, but the stomach or intestinal problem continued. I saw an article about eating lake fish and how it should be limited because of mercury and other pollution. So I asked him how many times a week he was eating salmon he caught? When he lifted his head, I could see the lightbulb go on. Was it the fish? He cut out eating Lake Michigan fish for awhile and the symptoms subsided.

Next story, is about a family that lived along the shores of Lake Erie. The father enjoyed hunting, and fishing and the family ate all kinds of wild things, particularly a lot of walleye, and perch. The daughters grew up to have children that all suffer some form of autism an/or unusual chronic health problems. The daughters cannot find any other unifying factor outside of genetics, that may be the culprit, other than eating a lot of fish while growing up. Doctors doubt the genetic factor because the diseases are not the same except for autism.

This is not about the fish being delicious or the fishing industry taking a hit. It’s flat out about pollution. We surely don’t want a legacy of lakes full of fish that are unedible. The Great Lakes Legacy Act was established to help maintain the clean quality of our lakes but is it too late? Some people have eaten the fish for years with no problems, but then again how many times a week? Eating fish every Friday doesn’t seem to pose a problem. Eating it everyday may be another story. I live on the lake and don’t eat any of it. I’d like to have a pond and raise my own quite frankly.

Environmentalism is taking a bit hit in Congress in Michigan right now. I don’t think we can afford to do that do you? As good citizens we have a big responsibility keeping the freshwater “fresh” for many years to come.