What is methylmercury?
Methylmercury is a highly toxic form of mercury. (2)
What does methylmercury do?
It can accumulate in the tissues of fish and other aquatic organisms. (2)
Methylmercury and Humans
Methylmercury is removed from the human body naturally, but it may take over a year for the levels to drop significantly. (1)
How is methylmercury produced?
Certain types of bacteria can convert mercury into methylmercury. (2)
What contains methylmercury?
albacore tuna (1)
Fish that are higher up in the food chain and eat other fish are more likely to have higher levels of methylmercury in their bodies. (2)
What contain HIGH levels of methylmercury?
shark (3)
swordfish (3)
king mackerel (3)
tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico (3)
What contain lower levels of methylmercury?
bigeye tuna (3)
marlin (3)
orange roughy (3)
Spanish mackerel (Gulf) (3)
oysters from the Gulf of Mexico (3)
striped bass from the Gulf of Mexico (3)
bluefish (3)
Resources
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albacore
2. ChatGPT, “Why do fish contain mercury?”, 3/8/23
3. ChatGPT, “What fish are known to contain high levels of methylmercury?”, 3/8/23
