Romancing the Mercury

In a given week or month, I always look forward to the canned seafood day. Not only does it route me to a transpacific trance (no pun intended) to my beloved tropical islands, but also break the monotony of the North American meat diet, ugh, watch those arteries. Growing up in one of the 7,107 islands mean lots, tons, heaps, loads and oodles of fresh seafood daily! Not to mention our youthful appearance, thank you.

My hubby and I would usually enjoy a spectrum of exotic flavors with this fine, global selection perfectly paired with steamy garlic fried rice. Our usual favorites include:

Icelandic Cod Liver in own oil (The ultimate! Tastes luxurious, very smooth and rich.)
Octopus in pickled sauce from Spain
Stuffed Squid in ink sauce from Spain
Fillets of Anchovies in Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Argentina

My only concern with canned or even fresh (!) seafood is the level of mercury contamination due to environmental pollution. It is hard to find fresh seafood here in North America and most of the fishes are also farmed, which meant more contamination, antibiotics, and even colorings (for salmon meat to turn pink) from congested, man-made ponds. There are exceptions though… unless it is caught out in the wild in less tainted waters. But seafood of this sort is ridiculously expensive (read: Alaskan Wild Red Salmon at 72$ for 6 portions)!

Below is the Consumer Guide to Mercury in Fish from the NRDC:

LEAST MERCURY	MODERATE MERCURY	HIGH MERCURY	HIGHEST MERCURY
Enjoy these fish:	Eat 6 servings or less per month:	Eat 3 servings or less per month:	Avoid eating:
Anchovies Butterfish Catfish Clam Crab (Domestic) Crawfish/Crayfish Croaker (Atlantic) Flounder* Haddock (Atlantic)* Hake Herring Mackerel (N. Atlantic, Chub) Mullet Oyster Perch (Ocean) Plaice Pollock Salmon (Canned)** Salmon (Fresh)** Sardine Scallop* Shad (American) Shrimp* Sole (Pacific) Squid (Calamari) Tilapia Trout (Freshwater) Whitefish Whiting	Bass (Striped, Black) Carp Cod (Alaskan)* Croaker (White Pacific) Halibut (Atlantic)* Halibut (Pacific) Jacksmelt (Silverside) Lobster Mahi Mahi Monkfish* Perch (Freshwater) Sablefish Skate* Snapper* Tuna (Canned chunk light) Tuna (Skipjack)* Weakfish (Sea Trout)	Bluefish Grouper* Mackerel (Spanish, Gulf) Sea Bass (Chilean)* Tuna (Canned Albacore) Tuna (Yellowfin)*	Mackerel (King) Marlin* Orange Roughy* Shark* Swordfish* Tilefish* Tuna (Bigeye, Ahi)*
* Fish in Trouble! These fish are perilously low in numbers or are caught using environmentally destructive methods. ** Farmed Salmon may contain PCB’s, chemicals with serious long-term health effects.

It’s getting harder to live a healthy life in this current world with all these restrictions, I wonder how the babies nowadays will cope up in the toxic, dog-eat-dog understatement future. They always say “it’s always never too late”, but why do we have to wait this long to undo the damage that can’t be undone. Poor cuties.