I found an article in the San Francisco Chronicle that was about the level of mercury in the fish that we buy in the bay area. The actual article was not in the newspaper, but I was able to find a few letters to the editor regarding the article. The article, entitled " Mercury in the fish we buy, or catch in the bay", gave information about four different species of fish that contain a high mercury level. These fish include tuna, swordfish, mackerel, and tilefish. The letters to the editor stated different viewpoints and opinions about the fish situation. .
The people who were writing to the editors about the mercury level in fish made some good points about the bad factors of selling the fish. One of the letters to the editor by Michael Stanley-Jones, California state director of Clean Water Action & Clean Water Fund, dealt with the idea that many residents in the bay area are able to find other sources of nutrition, but there are many low-income families that aren't able to afford any other sources. "Even the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program includes canned tuna as part of the food package for pregnant women and young children." This means that the people who cannot afford choices in their food supply become highly at risk for the exposure to mercury. The danger of eating a lot of bay area fish is covered in these letters. .
Another letter to the editor states that not only should there be warning signs posted by most fish counters, but also they should be posted next to tuna. A woman by the name of Jeanine Harmon explains how she ate tuna while she was breast feeding and it took nine agonizing months for her 19-month-old son's mercury level to disappear. .
I found that these letters to the editor relate to the biology because earlier in the semester we studied ecology. During the ecology lab, we did an exercise about the San Francisco bay. In the lab we learned that an estuary is the location where salt water from the ocean meets fresh water from a river or stream.
