As Sam Bass stood before an Everett fish counter Friday afternoon, the only issue in his mind seemed to be just how much salmon to buy.
He paused before pointing to what he wanted. The wild salmon, caught off the Oregon coast, was selling for $19.99 a pound. Bass figured he needed to take home about two pounds.
An old college friend from out of state was coming for a visit, he explained, and Bass wanted to provide him with a treat.
Bass said he wasn’t concerned about eating the salmon, despite an advisory issued by the state Department of Health on Thursday.
The state agency advised consumers, especially pregnant women and young children, to limit consumption of Puget Sound chinook salmon to one meal a week, due to recent findings that the fish were tainted with PCBs and mercury.
“I don’t have any problem” with buying the fish, Bass said. “If I were casting right off the Everett waterfront I might … or snagged a bite out of the Duwamish Slough, it might be a problem.”
D.J. Peterson, an owner of the Waterfront Fish Market in Everett, said he hoped people would look beyond headlines declaring Puget Sound fish toxic. Instead, they should ask where the fish was caught, Peterson said.
Most chinook sold in the store is caught in Alaska or off the Oregon and Washington coasts.
Although people definitely will be talking about the health advisory, “we’re not that concerned,” said Michael Long, the store’s manager.
Rob Duff, a state health department toxicologist, said the agency isn’t trying to discourage people from eating fish.
“Our primary message is eat fish,” he said. “The secondary message is to be smart about it. The only salmon that is limited is Puget Sound chinook.”
State officials recommend no more than two meals per month of blackmouth, the resident Puget Sound chinook salmon that never migrate to the open sea.
If you don’t know where the fish was caught, steps such as trimming fat and baking or broiling the fish instead of pan frying it will reduce the levels of contaminants, Duff said.
Puget Sound chinook are named in the advisory because they’re a little higher in contaminants than other salmon, Duff said. PCBs and mercury found in the fish can cause subtle learning and behavior problems in children, he said.
“It’s also important to get this message to anglers who fish in Puget Sound,” Duff said.
Most of the salmon in Puget Sound are caught by sports fishermen or tribal members.
Neither Terry Williams, commissioner of fish and natural resources for the Tulalip Tribes, nor tribal Chairman Stan Jones were available for comment Friday.
“What this really points out is the need to keep toxins out of Puget Sound,” said Tony Meyer, a spokesman for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “Most research shows eating salmon is better for you than not eating it. That’s the long and the short of it.”
Mike Harding, a member of the Everett Steelhead and Salmon Club, said he was more worried about the bad fishing season over the past four to five months than the health advisory about Puget Sound chinook.
“As far as the PCBs and all, if it’s going to kill me, I should be dead,” he said.
“If I could catch one tomorrow, I’d eat the sucker.”
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
More information
For more information on health advisories involving Puget Sound fish, go to the state Department of Health Web site at www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/ oehas/fish/ps.htm.
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