[Guest]

Hey Guys,

I'm assuming a few of the QLD boys saw the news the other night?

Testing was carried out on a few large Hinze Dam Australian Bass, and the fish were found to have high levels of Mercury in their system, to the point of exceeding the safe levels for human consumption. Apparently the levels were similar to levels found in much larger fish like Sharks.

The QLD Governement has advised fishermen not to eat the Bass from Hinze dam, investigations as to the cause of the high levels of Mercury are continuing. I understand the QLD Governement has also asked local councils in other areas of QLD to test fish from their local resevoirs as they are thinking this might not be a problem confined to Hinze Dam.

I'm shattered.....Hinze is only 15 mins from my place and I fish there frequently. The thought of not being able to take home a feed is very disappointing.

 

[Davey G]

dallas, what have they attributed the mercury to? it has to come from somewhere (industry) doesn't it??

I can understand Sydney Harnbour having toxic levels of dioxins / mercury etc but a water catchment area like Hinze?? Seems very strange..

 

[Guest]

Something interesting......

I found some information re: how they arrive at the 'safe levels' for human consumption.

1ppm is the magical mark, which is set to 1/10th of the level which creates noticeable symptoms in humans. So they allow plenty of safety margin. The safe levels are also set on the basis that you eat the particular food several times a week. They do this to ensure people who follow 'fad diets' or strict diet reigemes where one type of food is eaten often are still within a safe range.

I have not heard what the levels were in the Bass in Hinze, but safe to say it was over the 1ppm.

According to the information I found, if the levels were not too far over 1ppm, it would be safe to eat the fish provided you only had say one meal every 2-3 weeks.

 

[Guest]

Hey Davey,

Not sure mate, there has not been anything in the press about where they think it has come from.

Mercury is present naturally in the environment, and all fish have some level of Mercury in their system naturally, as do humans, but obviously the levels in these fish is extraordinarily high.

Pollution of some sort would seem the obvious culprit.

If I hear any more as to how they think this has happened, I'll be sure to post it here.

 

[RedPhoenix]

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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[fisher]

Do the bass get bigger when the water warms up :?: :lol:

 

[troppo]

Mercury is very heavy stuff. Bass with a higher mercury content would not only be smaller on a weight basis than non-mercury bass (higher density) but they are more likely to be well muscled (since they have extra weight to cart around) and bottom feeders (as too hard to swim to the surface).

So, if you catch a bass measuring 20 cm but weighs as heavy as a 50 cm one, and it fought like a Trojan and took a deep diver, then what ever you do, don't eat it. It is toxic.

 

[Daveyak]

Troppo, there's obviously too much of something in the fish you've been catching :lol: :lol: .

 

[bazzoo]

Troppo, if you eat those bass, you too may become "well musceled, be able to fight like a trogan , and dive deep" :? :? , perhaps thats what superman ate :shock: :shock:

 

[troppo]

You guys make me laugh. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Top stuff.

See ya.

 

[YakAtak]

Clowns :lol:

Dallas, thanks for that mate, be interesting to see if further studies are conducted.

 

[Guest]

Wooooooooooot! 8)

Hinze Dam water is safe

Mayor Ron Clarke said today drinking water from Hinze Dam is perfectly safe.

â€Å"As Queensland Health said on the weekend, there is no cause for alarm and no health threats from mercury in the town water supply".

â€Å"Gold Coast Water conducts regular testing of water samples from Hinze Dam.â€