Where your yellowfin tuna was caught can dramatically change the level of pollutants in its flesh, say researchers at the University of San Diego’s Scripps Institute of Oceanography, after testing 117 yellowfin tuna from 12 locations in a first-of-its-kind global study.
“They found yellowfin tuna caught closer to more industrialized locations off North America and Europe can carry 36 times more pollutants — including pesticides, flame retardants and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) — than the same species caught in more remote locations, like in the West Pacific Ocean,” says NPR.
“Every fish [we tested] had some level of pollutants,” says Sascha Nicklisch, a postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
And while most of the tuna caught showed levels of contamination below the joint standards set by the EPA and FDA, “the study found that 90 percent of tuna caught in the northeast Atlantic Ocean — and more than 60 percent of yellowfin samples caught in the Gulf of Mexico — contained pollutant levels that would have triggered health advisories in some segments of the population, including pregnant and nursing women,” says NPR.