by John Flesher

Wellston, Michigan (AP)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mercury has proven helpful over the years, but it’s also a toxin with the potential to seriously damage the human nervous system. The Bush administration last year proposed reducing mercury emissions by 70 percent from coal-fired power plants, the nation’s biggest source of atmospheric mercury. Gov. Jennifer Granholm has ordered Michigan’s electricity generators to slash their mercury output 90 percent by 2015. In a package of stories, The Associated Press examines how people can become exposed to mercury through consumption of the Great Lakes region’s fish, and discusses what some hope will be a breakthrough

in the search for technological solutions to the mercury problem.

As the setting sun casts long shadows over Pine Lake, its surface rippled by a gentle breeze, Jimmie Mitchell drops a pinch of tobacco into the water – a gesture of gratitude for nature’s bounty.

Mitchell, chairman of the natural resources commission with the Little River Band of Ottawa, and tribal biologist Marty Holtgren have netted 11 yellow perch and two bluegill from the small lake in southern Manistee County.

Their mission is partly scientific – evaluating fish population dynamics in area lakes. But the perch and bluegill will be frozen and eventually served during a ceremony, perhaps a funeral or festival. To the Anishnabe, fish is more than just food. It’s a link with past generations, a symbol of cultural identity.

And that makes mercury contamination a particularly touchy matter. Tribal leaders walk a fine line between encouraging their citizens to retain ancient traditions and cautioning them against the modern threat of tainted fish, the leading cause of human mercury poisoning.

“Our people have always gained subsistence from rivers and lakes,” Mitchell says. “Eating fish is part of our DNA; it’s part of who we are.”

For American Indians, he adds, “The connection to fish and meat and natural things is so strong, no matter what the danger of contamination is, they’re still going to eat it.”

At least 40 states and the federal government issue fish consumption advisories because of mercury, PCBs and other toxins.

The latest Michigan advisory warns against eating more than one meal a week of species such as walleye, northern pike and muskie caught in inland lakes, as well as rock bass, yellow perch and crappie over nine inches long. These species prey on smaller fish, passing mercury up the food chain in ever-larger concentrations.

Women of childbearing age and children under age 15 should eat such fish no more than once a month, the advisory says. Fetuses and young children are particularly vulnerable to impaired neurological development from exposure to methylmercury, the form of mercury that accumulates in fish.

But while the warnings are for everyone, the significance of fish for many Indian tribes puts them especially at risk. Urban blacks and Hispanics also are considered “sensitive populations,” says Amy Roe of the University of Delaware’s Center for the Energy and Environmental Policy.

“They’re going to be fishing local rivers more often than others and eating what they catch more often than others,” says Roe, who included Chippewa tribes of Minnesota and Wisconsin in a study of mercury contamination among Native peoples.

Some Indian subpopulations eat four to five times the amount of fish the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assumed when developing models for federal consumption advisories, she says. The average Chippewa eats about 62 fish meals a year, compared to 42 for the typical sport angler and 36 for Americans in general, her report says.

Studies have detected elevated mercury levels in the blood of some Chippewas, Roe says in her 2003 paper, published in the Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society.

“Indigenous groups who fish in contaminated waters are paying for their culture with their health,” it says.

The Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority, which oversees fishery management for five northern Michigan tribes, is developing a fish consumption brochure after a series of meetings on the reservations. It should be completed this fall, says Mike Ripley, environmental coordinator for the authority’s Intertribal Fisheries and Assessment Program.

Also in the works is a video that will explain the importance of fishing to Native communities, the health benefits of eating fish and how to limit risk of toxic exposure.

“We don’t want to tell people don’t eat fish,” Ripley says. “People want to practice their tradition and culture, but there’s some confusion and we’re hoping to help clear it up.”

The amount of mercury in an individual fish depends partly on where it’s caught, he says. Great Lakes fish, except those found in wetland areas, tend to have lower mercury content than those in inland lakes.

Tests of whitefish from tribal commercial operations in northern Michigan consistently find tissue mercury levels below 0.5 parts per million, the level that triggers state consumption advisories, Ripley says. Lake herring and smelt also tend to have low mercury content.

The Little River Band, based in Manistee, surveyed its 3,200 citizens a couple of years ago and found that some regularly eat more than 200 pounds of fish per year – well above amounts recommended by state and federal agencies.

Aside from the cultural tug, there’s economic reality: “It’s an available food source and it certainly does help some people meet the budget,” biologist Holtgren says.

Springtime spearfishing is a long-standing tradition, but members also use hooks and lines and limited netting in keeping with tribal regulations, he says. It’s common for families to stock freezers with fish for winter meals and ceremonies where other native dishes are served, such as wild rice, strawberries and corn soup.

Mitchell, a father of four, says his family reluctantly heeds the recommended limits on eating fish.

“It is very troubling to have to restrict ourselves like that,” he says.

The Little River Band helped lead the fight against a proposed coal-fired electricity plant near the Manistee River, a prized fishery. Coal-burning plants are the biggest source of mercury emissions in Michigan. City officials denied an application to build the plant in 2004.

The tribe also has joined a multistate lawsuit demanding tougher federal mercury standards.

While fighting on the political and legal fronts, the tribe has programs that encourage members to avoid overfishing and keep local stocks healthy, Holtgren says.

During their expedition on Pine Lake, he and Mitchell retrieve fish from nets, throw some back and place the keepers in an ice chest. They measure the fish to track growth rates, and record how many of each species they take. The nets are a type that keep fish alive, so unwanted ones can be released.

“It’s the tribe’s charge to make sure the next seven generations of our people are protected, so they will have the same ability we have to exercise our cultural identity,” Mitchell says.