I used to love most seafood until I got sick two different occasions from fried clams when I was in my mid-twenties. Since then I've lost my taste for lobster, crab, shrimp, well, practically all fish or seafood. Most TWRA lakes around here in East Tennessee have warning signs everywhere you look saying don't eat the catfish, stripers, drum, bass, or sauger from mercury and PCB contamination. The last few years the only time I keep fish are maybe shad, skipjack herring, or bream to use as catfish or striper bait.
Here's a tragic article about some unfortunate 11 year old boy who died from an allergic reaction to smelling cooked fish. I'm sort of skeptical about this, but who knows.
http://www.fox19.com/2019/01/03/boy-dies-apparent-allergic-reaction-smell-cooking-fish/?fbclid=IwAR2MUVIAGFAI6oME8sUuDjUm_9NqjHOYy9F5w04tOUiRmKuLD3rYXTa08w0
I grew up fishing with all those mercury warnings, ate everything I caught. Still kicking too!
It's probably been 8 or 9 years ago, but in the spring I used to always keep a mess or two of crappie. Fishing is fun, I just don't care for eating them much anymore.
Quote from: David Hall on January 05, 2019, 06:49:32 PM
I grew up fishing with all those mercury warnings, ate everything I caught. Still kicking too!
Mercury can affect the brain in sublethal doses. This explains a lot :) :)
Quote from: festus on January 05, 2019, 06:42:47 PM
I'm sort of skeptical about this, but who knows.
I'm not. It's rare, but a known risk for some highly allergic people. The allergens in the air from cooking must've done a real number on the kids lungs.... I think what may be unusual is that this kid apparently hadn't a known fish allergy.
my wife is severely allergic to fish. :-\
A couple of my friends have been hospitalized from allergic reaction to shrimp.
Both times I ate clams it caused moderate nausea. I didn't go to the doctor, just avoided eating them altogether. Been leery of eating anything similar for the past 45 years or so.
The majority of the mercury issues in fish are from those that spend most of their time at or near the bottom and accumulate in the larger fish. The smaller, better eating examples haven't had enough time to accumulate hazardous amounts. Moderation is the key, a meal now and then isn't considered dangerous except maybe to pregnant or breast feeding women and real little kids. People seem to have less allergic reactions to freshwater fish than to saltwater fish like tuna and other seafoods.
I love all seafood, but occasionally have a reaction to shrimp.
It is short lived, but not pleasant.
No other problems with crab, fish, oysters, scallops, lobster, mussels.
It is only the shrimp, I'll break out in hives, but an hour later I am fine.
It will intensify If I start itching, I just try not to.
I know most store bought shrimp is farm raised and that is the only type I have an issue with.
I'm allergic to red dye and shell fish has never bothered me. Doctors cant figure that out.
Sal
I have *mild* reactions to some saltwater fish, but , I just don't eat so much, and it's "bearable". The mercury and pcb levels in my "home" river (the Rock River, in northern Illinois) are high enough that they have the same kind of restrictions....only one meal a week, for adults, kids and pregnancy= no consumption. That's only on catfish , carp, and some species of suckers. Smallmouth and walleyes aren't "limited''.
The local river I fished growing up the Guadalupe collected the run off from the largest most productive quicksilver mine in America the Guadalupe mine. It was active from the 1840's to the 1970's Fish never seemed to mind it so I didn't either.
Thank God, I am ok with all seafood. I did get sick after eating raw oysters once in New Orleans many, many, years ago. I attribute it to a bad oyster as I have not had any problems since. I feel sorry for those who have reactions, because I would rather eat a good piece of fresh fish than the best aged steak.
Scott
I got confused a bit reading this thread.
Is an allergic reaction to fish at all connected to mercury levels?
I thought these were separate issues.
Steve
I have an allergic reaction to sand crabs. Not critical mind you. My nose just turns into a faucet.
I used to eat a lot of fish when I was younger and I experienced a strange reaction on one specific occasion.
I recall eating that one particular meal because for the next ten years or more, every species of fish tasted exactly the same monotone flavor: it had a kind of off crayfish taste to it!
Kinda spoiled things for me for the longest time but fortunately this peculiarity eventually dissipated and I could once again enjoy the distinct flavors of the various species.
~
and then there's ciguatera... :-\
love all seafood, as long as it's not sharkmeat texture
Quote from: exp2000 on January 06, 2019, 12:55:26 AM
I used to eat a lot of fish when I was younger and I experienced a strange reaction on one specific occasion.
I recall eating that one particular meal because for the next ten years or more, every species of fish tasted exactly the same monotone flavor: it had a kind of off crayfish taste to it!
Kinda spoiled things for me for the longest time but fortunately this peculiarity eventually dissipated and I could once again enjoy the distinct flavors of the various species.
~
had something similar: backpacked for a month, eating mostly fish & developed a short-term aversion
no ill effects, but zero enjoyment of "exactly the same monotone flavor"
mine cleared up in 6 months, though... didn't even want beloved shellfish, for a month
Quote from: sdlehr on January 05, 2019, 07:09:37 PM
Quote from: David Hall on January 05, 2019, 06:49:32 PM
I grew up fishing with all those mercury warnings, ate everything I caught. Still kicking too!
Mercury can affect the brain in sublethal doses. This explains a lot :) :)
if he gets furtive & twitchy, just get him a big top-hat :o
Quote from: swill88 on January 06, 2019, 12:30:58 AM
I got confused a bit reading this thread.
Is an allergic reaction to fish at all connected to mercury levels?
I thought these were separate issues.
Steve
They are different issues. Mercury & PCBs are long term health related problems.
Allergic reactions are usually short term but can be quite serious.
My dad got food poisoning from mussels one time shortly after the beginning of a 12 hour drive from northern MN to Omaha. It was a long trip home for him. I had to stop about every 50 miles to find a bath room for him. ::) We all felt really bad for him. He was sick for about a week afterwards. That was 20 years ago & he still can't stand the thought of eating mussels and he loved them before that. Enough time has passed now that most of family asks him, every now and then, if he wants to go to Red Lobster for mussels. ;D
No allergies to any fish or seafood that I can recall. I take moderate precaution with how much I consume from waters with mercury warnings (which seems to be almost all rivers, lakes & ponds). On the other hand, I don't eat anything from waters that have PCB or Dioxin warnings and I don't knowingly fish in waters containing such highly carcinogenic toxins.
Quote from: alantani on January 05, 2019, 08:36:37 PM
my wife is severely allergic to fish. :-\
I've heard of a number of people who were hospitalised after eating Yellowtail, some apparently even without eating but just handling the fish.
We constantly get warnings about mercury and polluted fish and seafood because of E coli in the Bay where I live.
I don't think pollution is an issue with the species I catch as they are not resident here, at worst they pass through and go out again in a few days at most.
My wife loves fish and eats it in various forms including sashimi at least 4 days a week, which also brings the issue of parasites to the fore again but she very is healthy and fit.
I no longer have a taste for Yellowtail and eat some once in 14 days. Tuna, smoked Bonita, squid and Galjoen our winter fish I still enjoy.
Quote from: swill88 on January 06, 2019, 12:30:58 AM
I got confused a bit reading this thread.
Is an allergic reaction to fish at all connected to mercury levels?
I thought these were separate issues.
Steve
Yes, they're two different issues.
First time I ate clams was at Red Lobster. An hour or so later after returning to work, I had to run to the bathroom and upchuck. Several months later I had deep fried clams at Long John Silvers with the same results. These aren't the best establishments, but Tennessee has slim pickings for seafood restaurants.
For at least the past 40 years my favorite lake has warning signs posted at all boat docks, ramps, and public parks saying don't eat the catfish, sauger, drum, stripers, carp, and white bass due to mercury, radioactivity, PCBs, and other pollutants. Oak Ridge, aka "Secret City" is upstream. The old K-25, Y-12, and ORNL plants set in the watershed of the Tennessee River. These plants built part of the atomic bomb used during WWII. I had a chance to work at these plants but turned it down. Unfortunately, my dad worked 35 years at Y-12 and died an early death at age 58, partially due to being exposed to berylium and many other nasty carcinogens.
There are kind of a bunch of overlapping things here. Actual toxin buildup from the careless things done to the environment tends to build up as you move up the food chain - and since we as homo sapiens are an apex predator, many times the things we consume have consumed a lot of other things and the toxins (mercury, lead, radiation from Fukashima) just continue to build up. Frankly while fun to fish I would never consider eating fish from the California Aqueduct - too many stolen cars dumped in that thing.
Allergies - those are rough, and we all are different in that regards. Shellfish allergies can be WICKED. Peanut and nut allergies also pretty common. Fin Fish allergies as well, but from what my allergist told me, less common (I am sensitive to fin fish, but I enjoy frequently but in extreme moderation. If I overconsume I am hitting my asthma meds)
One thing that is pretty common but I haven't seen talked about here - Scromboid Poisoning. Apparently it is not uncommon, especially with restaurants, and can be very difficult to differentiate from an "allergic reaction". It generally happens with Pelagics (hence the "Scromboid" name) and is an issue resulting from poor handling (bacteria begin to break down the fish, and begin to convert compounds in the fish into Histamines...compounds that our bodies don't like). It can happen anywhere in the Supply Chain (mishandled on the boat, mishandled at the processor, mishandled at the restaurant or the fish market) where if the fish is allowed to warm up even just a little...and unlike those obvious characteristics of spoiled or mishandled fish (ammonia or "fishy" smell, eyes not bright, etc) this form of spoilage is commonly undetectable in taste or aroma. And the symptoms, which can hit very fast (within a few minutes up to a few hours of ingestion) look very similar to an allergic reaction. And the treatment (administering antihistamines, etc) is very similar to an allergy treatment. The only way really to differentiate from what I understand is a blood test (when the local Urgent Care suddenly gets a rash of "fish allergies" in a very short time) which generally is not done, because it passes quickly once treated. Thankfully I am pretty sure that the folks are this forum are not the "toss it in a burlap sack on the back deck" crowd but instead are pretty meticulous when we choose to retain fish for consumption.
And entirely unrelated (can you tell my office is right next to our Food Safety guy?) is those neat vacuum packed freezer packages that you get either in the frozen food section (I love my frozen wild caught salmon), or the fish in your local restaurant comes in, or that you get from the top-notch processor after your last Long Range trip? Do NOT defrost the fish in the package. The appeal of those packages is they remove all of the air, and so our fish stays in great shape longer. But, Botulism thrives in an anaerobic (No AIR!) environment, so warming/thawing in that sealed package - not a great idea. But take the fish out of the package and thaw - plenty of O2 in our environment to prevent it from multiplying, etc.
There are a hell of a lot of folks on this forum that are smarter than me on this stuff, but I wanted to throw it out there, especially when I hear about somebody that normally is fine but suddenly has a "reaction". I know in my case there appears to be ways we can be tested for true allergies (I have done the whole "skin blister" thing many times) that are probably smarter and less dramatic than the "let's see how much Yellowtail I can eat and still feel fine?" methodology.