US albacore tuna fishermen have asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to test them and their wives and children for side effects from methylmercury. The move is seen as a strategic challenge against scientific reports on the dangers of eating tuna, which threaten the tuna consumer market. The 400-strong Western Fishboat Owners Association is effectively saying they have been eating tuna, man and child, more than anyone else for decades and they have not suffered.
The request, in a formal letter to FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan, asks for an immediate programme of testing. It follows a new draft FDA advisory warning pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children about mercury content in albacore tuna. Wayne Heikkila, executive director of WFOA whose members come from California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii as well as Canada and New Zealand said: "Our members and their physicians are particularly mystified by these developments since [our] fishermen and their children seem to be very healthy 'despite' regularly consuming unusually large quantities of albacore tuna."
He said most albacore fishing families consume albacore several times a week throughout the year and even more during the fishing season, and this rate was far higher than national averages.
He added that many are second and third generation fishermen who ate large quantities of albacore as young children, and were born to mothers who regularly ate large quantities of albacore tuna during pregnancy and while nursing.
"For decades we have proudly supplied top-quality, protein-packed, Omega-3 rich albacore to the public," says WFOA president Lewis Hill.
"This new draft warning and talk about 'risks' flies in the face of what we know to be true: our families eat more albacore than any other segment of the population, and as a group we are very healthy."
"The FDA now has the opportunity to move beyond theoretical risk assessments to document actual impacts on human health.
"The US albacore fishing community includes a large pool of willing volunteers, he said and we await their reply."
