Reply #8: Them cityfolk just heard about this here mercury problem?

[Alcibiades]

Not that bluefin tuna are not important--like many top predators, problems with them are an important indicator that something is seriously wrong with the food chain. What's galling is that, for around the last 20 years, all up and down the east coast, including in New York, we have not been able to eat our freshwater fish. When I was a kid, we all caught and ate fish. This part of our folkways is dying. A map of the EPA fish advisory areas includes pretty much the whole country:

snip

The 2004 NLFA database lists 3,221 advisories in 48 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Territory of American Samoa, and 3 indian tribes. The number of waterbodies under advisory represents:
35% of the Nation's total lake acres (excluding the Great Lakes), or approximately 14,285,062 lake acres
24% of the Nation's total river miles, or approximately 839,441 river miles
65% of the Nation's contiguous coastal waters (excluding Alaska) including 92% of the Atlantic coast and 100% of the Gulf coast
100% of the Great Lakes and their connecting waters.
There were 31 states with statewide advisories in effect in 2004. Indiana reported one new statewide advisory in 2004.
In addition, 2.4% of the Nation's river miles and 18% of the Nation's lake acres had safe eating guidelines in effect in 2004.

unsnip

The problem's a lot bigger than mercury polluted tuna in some swanky New York sushi places. I suppose that reporters for the New York Times are more likely to eat bluefin than bluegill. All of a sudden, some rich folks in Manhattan are not able to eat sushi, and it's news. Everything's more important if it happens in New York, media hub of the Northeast! Hello, Manhattan, welcome to the world the rest of us have been living in for 20 years.