Seal Beach Daily

1 | joe farlo MD

July 1st, 2009 at 3:22 pm

OEHHA fish advisories for LA County

How much harm does “Do No Harm” really do?

Southern California is fraught with multiple sites of ocean contamination in part due to our legacy of unchecked toxic sanitation disposal prior to the establishment of the Clean Water Act of 1972 and partially due to persistent urban runoff into our rivers, estuaries and harbors from point source contamination, a problem that is very difficult to define and control. Recently the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) issued a fish consumption advisory based on the largest fish survey ever conducted in Southern California. In the interest of simplifying recommendations the advisory arbitrarily set extremely broad boundaries which make the message easy to communicate to the general public but may end up causing more harm than good.
There is a great deal of confusion surrounding the new recommendations. This confusion stems from the fact that the original fish advisories issued by OEHHA in 1991 were primarily driven by DDT (a pesticide carcinogenic to humans) that was dumped off of White’s Point PV by the LACSD up until 1972. White Croakers from South PV were severely contaminated as they still are today. The new fish advisories are primarily driven by fish concentrations of PCB’s (a persistent organic pollutant and human carcinogen that is harmful at much lower concentrations than DDT) and mercury (which is now considered harmful in very low concentrations to children under age 17). Unlike DDT which primarily has a single point source in South PV, PCB’s and mercury can be found in high concentrations around most harbors, estuaries and river deltas in Southern California as we have recently learned from our scientist friend’s involved in the MLPA process
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/pdfs/agenda_121708j.pdf

So why are these new fish advisories more harmful than good?

1.Well first off they assume that fish are not severely contaminated from Ventura to Santa Monica and from Seal Beach to San Mateo Point without actually measuring any significant numbers of fish in these locations. Specifically fish consumption recommendations are made for corbina, halibut, sculpin, jacksmelt, opaleye, barracuda, sardine, sargo, guitarfish, and topsmelt without a single representative fish analysis. This is a dangerous position to take! There are multiple estuaries, rivers, harbors and military instillations in these regions known to have PCB and heavy metal contamination. All these fish have different feeding habits then the white croaker who is the only representative species caught in each geographic location and serves as the “surrogate” for all these other species.

2.So what other harm is there? Let’s say I live in Pasadena and I want to go out for a ½ day of consumptive fishing on a party boat. As an educated consumer I look at the map and decide to drive up to Ventura or down to Orange County instead of to San Pedro, Redondo or Marina Del Rey. Is that really the healthiest thing to do? Where is the evidence?

3.By generalizing recommendations and boundaries some very important facts have been thrown out. Specifically: Sculpin, Rockfish, Sheephead and Calico Bass from south PV in the immediate vicinity to Whites Point are utterly unfit for human consumption! Sandbass and Calico bass both have considerably higher mercury levels as they grow bigger so please take a picture and then release that “trophy catch”. Avoid consuming fish caught from any of our Los Angeles county break walls except for pelagic species! Sargo, Opyleye, Topsmelt, and Black Croaker from these locations are highly contaminated with PCB’s and mercury. In fact the recommendation for the Topsmelt consumption advisory was made based on PCB point source contamination from fish caught on the LA Breakwall and Marina Del Rey (both heavily contaminated areas due to the estuary creek runoff, and major industry) the only other Topsmelt caught in this study were off of Flat Rock in North PV. This sample was then used as the “surrogate reference” for making the consumption advisories as far north as Ventura and south as San Mateo (the yellow regions). Ironic but true North PV which is geographically isolated by the 1500 ft deep Redondo canyon to the north and the 3000ft PV continental shelf to the south may represent one of the last safe fishing areas from significant point source contamination. This area could contain some of the healthiest eating fish in the region but sadly was not adequately sampled for many species either. Overall, this study has left us with more problems than solutions.

But please don’t take my word for this, educate yourself and make your own choices by reading the original articles
2002-2004 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COASTAL MARINE FISH CONTAMINANTS SURVEY
Pg 32 has the reference map pages 99-103 have the individual fish analysis
http://www.epa.gov/region09/superfund/pvshelf/pdf/montrose_report.pdf

Then read the OEHHA interpretation of this study just published. Page 39 lists the advisory tissue levels for DDT, PCB and mercury
http://oehha.ca.gov/fish/so_cal/pdf_zip/SoCalAdvisoryl61809.pdf

Also visit http://www.keeprockypointopen.com

Note about Joe Farlo MD
Dr Farlo holds a bachelors degree in Organic Chemistry and Biology and is a board certified physician in the specialties of Pediatrics and Anesthesia. From 1997-2004 Dr Farlo was assistant professor of Anesthesia and Pediatrics at USC and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and has many publications in his fields. He now practices as an anesthesiologist in Torrance and is a member of the Departments of Anesthesia and Pediatrics at Torrance Memorial Medical Center. Dr Farlo is an avid breath hold spearfisherman, conservation officer of the Los Angeles Fathomiers dive club and a predominant voice in the recreational fishing community. He is the founder of the Keep Rocky Point Open Campaign which advocates marine conservation, ocean stewardship and the establishment of marine protected areas in Palos Verdes south of Point Vicente.