Now that the oil well has been capped in the Gulf, some waters have been reopened for fishing. Inspectors throughout the Gulf Coast are conducting smell tests to determine if the seafood is safe for human consumption. It might seem silly, especially in this day and age there are no better ways to test for chemicals, but the practice is actually quite common.

Course, not everyone is buying it:

“If I put fish in a barrel of water and poured oil and Dove detergent over that, and mixed it up, would you eat that fish?” asked Rusty Graybill, an oysterman and shrimp and crab fisherman from Louisiana’s St. Bernard Parish. “I wouldn’t feed it to you or my family. I’m afraid someone’s going to get sick.”

The FDA and Doug “I’d feed it to my family” Suttles however, disagree.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said the government is “confident all appropriate steps have been taken to ensure that seafood harvested from the waters being opened today is safe and that Gulf seafood lovers everywhere can be confident eating and enjoying the fish and shrimp that will be coming out of this area.”

In contrast to FDA opinion, Tulane researchers have indicated Corexit and crude are being found in crab larvae from Texas to Florida, so worries grow that the chemicals and crude may bio-accumulate. University of New Orleans Martin O’Connell, Phd explained bio-accumulation this way, “If you’re a small fish and you eat 1,000 of these small crab larvae and all of them have oil or Corexit droplets in them they could get into the fish — that little fish could be eaten and so on and so on.”

A tissue test is being developed by the FDA to more thoroughly check for chemicals in the seafood, yet there is no word on when the test might be ready…of course…between not having a tissue test and not doing more testing on dispersants, both slated to be done since the Exxon Valdez disaster twenty years ago, one might be inclined to think that the FDA and the EPA aren’t overly concerned with the safety of the food supply.

Okay, maybe that’s too harsh…

But then what tests might the FDA be doing, what might they be looking for? What indication can they give us, the public to help us feel better about their determinations… Well, taking a page from BP, the Coast Guard, the NOAA, the EPA…the FDA has declined requests to provide any such information.

That’s right.

What are they testing for? None of your business. What have they found? None of your business. You…yes you, are on a need to know and in the Gulf Coast these days, you don’t need to know nothing…but if it doesn’t smell like chemicals… you’re all good.

Come on FDA…really, let’s re-open the waters safely with full disclosure of all pertinent information…we’re not children, you’d be surprised what we can take.

Read the article…

Not Even Gulf Fisherman Buy the Government’s “Smell Test” Policy On Oil Exposed Seafood

Have a nice day.