Straits Times Forum 14 Jun 12;
BEING at the apex of the food chain, sharks accumulate vast amounts of toxic materials that have either been washed into the oceans or dumped there by man.
As confirmed by Singapore's Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA), the bulk of toxic materials is found in fish muscle ('Shark's fin not 'impregnated with mercury' ' by Mr Tan Keng Tat; last Saturday).
Nevertheless, no organ is spared, even if some selectively accumulate more toxins than others.
We cannot get too little of a bad thing, especially considering how little nutrient or nourishment value there is in shark's fin.
In contrast to the AVA's findings, in 2001, 70 per cent of shark's fin samples sent by conservation group WildAid to the Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research were found to have extremely high levels of mercury.
The discrepancy between this finding and the AVA's was explained thus: The Thai shark's fin samples were imported from Hong Kong, whereas Singapore gets shark's fin from more than 20 countries, of which only 10 per cent come from Hong Kong and 1.4 per cent from Thailand.
This begs the following questions: Do sharks respect national borders? More importantly, do shark's fin aficionados inquire about the provenance of the shark cartilage they are devouring? And in the interim period of the last 11 years, just how has the situation evolved?
It would be edifying to get some answers from the AVA.
Dr Yik Keng Yeong
Shark's fin not 'impregnated with mercury'
Straits Times Forum 9 Jun 12;
DR YIK Keng Yeong's claim that shark's fin is 'impregnated with mercury, a neurotoxin' has no merit ('Shark's fin delight: The end doesn't justify the means'; Thursday).
The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) found that 'tests done on the shark's fin products have shown that mercury was either not detected or was at levels well below the permitted level of five parts per million' ('Products sold in Singapore 'safe''; July 5, 2001).
According to the AVA, the toxic mercury is found mainly in fish muscles, and there is very little muscle in shark's fin.
This was corroborated by the United States Food and Drug Administration, which warned that eating shark meat may expose people to potentially dangerous, high levels of mercury.
And new research done at Rutgers University in 2010 showed that mercury levels are even higher in some species of tuna like the bluefin, bigeye and yellowfin - levels that exceed or approach those permissible by Canada, the European Union, Japan, the US and the World Health Organisation.
Millions of sharks will continue to be caught unintentionally in longlines and killed by the industrial-scale fisheries in the West, unless legislation is in place to regulate them. And millions more will be served up in fish and chip dishes in the US and EU, even if we stop eating shark's fin soup.
Tan Keng Tat
