Excerpt from "Right Hook, Wrong Angle" Special to Globe and Mail Update
By: Peter Meisenheimer and Rick Smith
One of us represents an industry based on the capture and sale of fish from Ontario waters. The other is the head of an organization that just released a report analyzing official consumption advisories for fish from Ontario waters and concluded, among other things, that levels of toxic chemicals in Great Lakes fish are alarmingly high, and not improving.
We both buy and eat fish from Ontario waters.
In light of the kind of headlines prompted by the release of the Environmental Defence report, this may strike some members of the public as odd. Regardless, there is no doubt that some sellers of Ontario fish have been receiving calls from concerned clients who have interpreted the report to mean that they should not eat fish, especially if it comes from Ontario, even though that clearly wasn't the report's finding.
That is unfortunate, because when all things are considered, the fish being offered for sale is a very good food product. The Ontario fish sold at your neighbourhood fish market is nutritious and safe, thanks to a rigorous system of harvesting and processing regulations that determine where fish can be harvested, what size of certain species can be sold into the food market, how it must be handled and what records must be maintained for inspectors. The regulations are subject to periodic review and licence conditions for commercial fishing are updated annually to take new information into account. It's about as good a system as you will find anywhere in the world.
To read the complete artcle follow the link below...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/right-hook-wrong-angle/article1250863/
Peter Meisenheimer is Executive Director of the Ontario Commercial Fisheries' Association (and also a Director of the Anishinabek/Ontario Fisheries Resource Centre - picture posted above). Rick Smith is Executive Director of Environmental Defence Canada.
