Chennaites stop eating fishes from Chennai Ennore
Posted on: 21/Jul/2015 10:17:15 AM
One of the fishing harbours is located in Chennai Ennore. The people who live here are fondly eating these fishes. Now there is information that the fishes of this area are poisonous and not fit to eat because of the sewage and other chemical products are dumped here.
A study by Aquaculture Foundation of India and three institutions including Anna University have found concentration of heavy metals in the water and marine organisms in and around Ennore creek due to pollution from industries and domestic sources.
Species like green mussel and tiger bass were found to have high concentration of mercury. Asian tiger shrimp found in Ennore creek was found to have up to 0.9 units of mercury as against the safe limit of 0.5 units. While the vastly consumed flathead grey mullet (madavai or kayal meen in local parlance) and Indian oyster had levels close to the prescribed limits.
The study points out that the liver and kidney of fish and shellfish tend to concentrate environmental mercury.
All the five species of Asian tiger shrimp, green mussel, Indian oyster, mullet and tiger bass had high cadmium concentration; shrimp had the highest level of 19.25 units (microgram per gram) against the permissible limit of 0.05 to 5.5. The study shows that bivalves accumulated higher proportions of copper, chromium, nickel and arsenic in Ennore creek than shrimp, grey mullet and tiger bass.
So if you eat seafood you might eat the fish that could have toxic elements like mercury, arsenic, lead and cadmium, a study has found. Such heavy metals pose health threats that include cancer, lung infection and failure of kidneys and other organs.
