Tuna Fish

I have always loved the taste of meat, but have always felt a little bit guilty about eating it and tried to minimize my consumption. The one thing that I could always feel all right about, however, was eating tuna fish. It was my favorite fish of all, and I could eat it without any guilt. I don't know why, but it is commonly believed that fish are less intelligent than animals. Many people will feel awful about keeping animals in cages, eating them, or raising them for livestock, but those same people can eat fish with ease. I was just like that. I would eat tuna fish all the time. I couldn't get enough. My uncle even took us out tuna fishing sometimes, and we would be able to enjoy our own freshly caught seafood. Then I started researching the controversy around it. It turned out that it wasn't such a guiltless food after all.
If you haven't heard about the tuna fish mercury controversy, you probably should listen up now. It is becoming widely known that many different fish species are contaminated with mercury poisoning. The amount of heavy metal poisoning in an individual species varies depending on what it eats, where it lives, and several other factors. Tuna are one of the worst ones. It is a shame because fish are usually viewed as healthy. For years, people were told to eat them because of their omega-3 essential fatty acid content. Now it turns out that, as good as these EFAs are for you, the harm done by mercury more than counteracts them.

There is also some concern about how tuna fish are caught. Many people think that Yellowfin tuna fish are caught in a way that is dolphin safe, but it turns out that sometimes commercial tuna fishing industries put dolphins in jeopardy anyway. The problem is that the worldwide food distribution network is so vast and so diffuse that it is difficult to figure out where your food is coming from. Although eating fish sometimes is probably all right, you never really know. It's tough, because they sure so delicious, but it is also important to try to take an ethical position on things. I don't know if I can give up tuna, but I certainly will cut back on it until I can find out some more information. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just go vegetarian.