In South Florida, it’s a great time of the year to fish with a very wide variety of fish to be caught. Now that I have retired after having spent my lifetime fishing and telling about my trips and a wide variety of other information to everyone every day, I feel like I am still working.
Today, we are going to talk about something a little different, related to not only fishing but eating fish. We all know that seafood is one of the best things that we can eat, but too much of the wrong fish is the problem. Let’s start by my saying that I have done that for the past 50 plus years; yes, getting smart in my old age. This started 10-15 years ago. I went to the doctor and started asking questions about why I was feeling the way I was. I eat fresh fish 5-6-7 days a week, lunch and dinner. Always fresh, best quality and condition, and I eat tons of it. Through the years, I caught all types of fish and caught 50 percent of it or more myself. I took great care to handle the fish properly and eat it in a variety of ways: fried, baked, broiled and a lot of it raw Sushi style. When I say a lot, 20 times in one month was quite common so I had different little things going on in my body.
I talked to different people, high-end doctors and explained my thoughts and feelings and had a very open mind. After 2-3 years of having the shakes, memory loss, hard to walk with balance, loss of energy, mind fog as I called it, my local doctor and at major hospitals over the US, no one could come up with what they thought my problems were. After many blood tests, I was always told I was in great shape on all my numbers. I was tested for 25 different things, everything from lime, lupus, just everything we could think of.
I was dealing with a very good friend of mine in Fort Lauderdale and said to him have we ever tested my blood for mercury poisoning. He said we had not, that’s one thing we have not even tried. It’s funny, we all get routine blood tests yearly, but I found out that over 90 percent of blood tests never test for mercury. It’s very common and easy to do, so next time you get your blood tested ask for one. Just another small vile of blood and they will do the test for about $50 or nothing extra. It just depends on your insurance plan.
A couple of guidelines is that normal numbers are about 5-10. High would be 15. I have talked to many hundreds of people that got the test done and were shocked to see their numbers in the 30s, 40,s and 50s. The big shock to me was that my test results after being re-done by one of the local high-end labs, was at 127! Yes, I knew I was screwed up, but not how badly!
I will finish up next month with more to this story. All I can say is fishing is still great off our shores and I am back to eating fish weekly in moderation.
Anyone with a mercury question, please send it to this magazine and I will do my best to help answer your questions. The hardest thing I found after my results is that very little is known. I have a new-found friend in Boca Raton who went to over 30 doctors looking for information. For what it’s worth, this month I was down to 22 and she was under 15. Study this on the Internet and tight lines and happy fishing. Just learn and know what type of fish you are eating.
After 60 years in the retail fishing industry, we are all learning every day. Watch my fish report for more to come, Tom Snook Greene. I even named my famous son of Lighthouse Point Marlin Greene.