Of course, many people eat more fish than the average. Now three recent reports offer shocking news about the increasingly-polluted condition of America's fish and fisheries, especially the coastal and estuarine areas of the ocean, where the bulk of America's fish are harvested. Even more shocking is the documented failure of federal, state and local governments to regulate industrial dumping into the nation's fishing waters. The same report points to chromium contamination in areas along the northeast Atlantic Coast and in San Francisco Bay. Mercury contamination is highest in Salem and Boston Harbors, and at Seal Beach, California.
Organic compounds are even more widespread than the inorganic metals.
These chemicals inevitably concentrate in the fish, which make their way to our dinner plates. NOAA will be releasing more details about contaminants in the nation's coastal waters and fish in the fall of 1987. The U.S. Congress's Office of Technology Assessment recently released Wastes in Marine Environments, which can serve as an excellent reference book for anyone who takes ocean pollution seriously. The report is fully documented, with a bibliography of 713 published sources. Bringing a more critical eye to bear on ocean pollution is the Coastal Alliance, a group of scientists and lawyers devoted to protecting the nation's marine resources.