There Is Less Poison in Fish Than You Think

It’s not all bad news under the sea.

Sure, pretty much every kind of white fish is infected with worms, shark meat is kind of toxic, and about a quarter of all fish contain traces of man-made trash in their digestive system, but there is the occasional glimmer of hope underwater.

A new study from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California found that fish are exposed to significantly less chemicals compared to any other period over the last 40 years.

By looking at 2,700 studies of fish pollutants from between 1969 and 2012, the team of researchers was able to identify a steady decline in toxins like mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and insecticides in the world’s oceans.

Also referred to as persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic pollutants (PBTs), this nasty group of toxins can cause learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, neurological disorders, and cancer in humans.

But the decline reported by the scientists is hardly carte-blanche for marine industries to pollute marine life. On the contrary, the Scripps team chalks this positive trend up to successful clean-water regulations, environmental lawsuits, and public pressure, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Another potential regulatory route, the authors suggest, could be to label foods that contain these harmful chemicals.

“We label a lot of things like whether it’s sustainable or whether it’s wild-caught or farmed, but one of the things that we still haven’t figured out how to do is to address whether it’s contaminated or not,” study co-author Amro Hamdoun told the Los Angeles Times. “I think that’s something most people want to know.”

So, aside from the occasional case of Jeremy Piven sushi-binge mercury poisoning, this study is good news for fish and hungry land creatures alike.