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By JACK MORSE
The Brunswick News
Clyde Williams has grown a little
leery about fishing in the same creeks he has frequented for more than 50
years.
“The Turtle River area was one of
my favorite fishing spots,” said Williams, a retired educator who spent 42
years in the Glynn and McIntosh county school systems.
But as evidence about pollution in
local waters has surfaced, Williams has decided it might not be such a good
idea to consume all that he can catch there.
“I have to wonder what effect
eating those fish has had on me and my family,” he said.
He is concerned enough to help
market a safe seafood campaign recently launched by the Glynn County Health
Department, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Georgia
Environmental Protection Division and the Glynn Environmental Coalition.
The campaign has been aimed
primarily at local subsistence fishers who regularly eat what they catch in
local waters. It also targets people who buy from local fish markets.
Robert Randall, who is working
with the Glynn Environmental Coalition to disseminate the information,
recommended that people ask about where fish have been caught before buying
at a local market or even ingesting at a fish-fry.
“Remember, we are just talking
about fish from advisory areas,” he said. “But unfortunately, that’s most of
Glynn County.”
Advisories cover the Turtle River
system from the Jekyll Island pier to the St. Simons Sound, South Brunswick
River, Buffalo River, Terry Creek, Dupree Creek and Back River.
Eating fish caught in these
locations, which Randall said have been contaminated due to the operations
of facilities such as the old LCP Chemicals plant, puts consumers at risk
because of high toxin levels.
“We can ream out pages of
information on each of these toxins and the possible effects they have,”
Randall said.
The contaminants include PCBs,
mercury, toxaphene and related compounds. Randall said the ingestion of
such toxins may damage the liver and kidneys. In children, they can affect
brain development.
But fish don’t need to be avoided
altogether, he added.
“We’re not encouraging people to
do that because fish do have great health benefits,” he said.
According to research, most people
can safely consume four meals per month of blue crab, red drum, spotted sea
trout or flounder from the advisory areas and one meal per month of black
drum, spot, whiting, striped mullet, croaker and sheepshead.
However, spot should not be eaten
from Terry and Dupree Creeks north of the F.J. Torras Causeway up to Back
River. Mullet, croaker and spot from parts of the Turtle River system should
also be avoided.
Consumption of shrimp from Purvis
and Gibson Creeks should be limited to one meal per month. |
P. O. Box 2443