MoneyMoose

As we all know, China is the land of lead contaminated toys - just imagine what could be happening to the fish they send to the West. Unlike Aquadots, you’re actually supposed to eat the denizens of the sea and, well, bad things could happen if the utmost care is not taken with them.

To relieve any tension you might have, here’s an investigative looking into the workings of your average Fuqing Province fishing plant:

“Fuqing is one of the centers of a booming industry that over two decades has transformed [China] into the biggest producer and exporter of seafood in the world, and the fastest-growing supplier to the United States.

But that growth is threatened by the two most glaring environmental weaknesses in China: acute water shortages and water supplies contaminated by sewage, industrial waste and agricultural runoff that includes pesticides. The fish farms, in turn, are discharging wastewater that further pollutes the water supply.

“Our waters here are filthy,” said Ye Chao, an eel and shrimp farmer who has 20 giant ponds in western Fuqing. “There are simply too many aquaculture farms in this area. They’re all discharging water here, fouling up other farms.”

Salmon? More like salmonella!

…didn’t like that joke? Well, then, back to the serious sides of the issue. Lets take a look at what these fishers are doing to try to keep their waters clean and their fish alive.

“Farmers have coped with the toxic waters by mixing illegal veterinary drugs and pesticides into fish feed, which helps keep their stocks alive yet leaves poisonous and carcinogenic residues in seafood, posing health threats to consumers.”

The food we give to Fido works for fish too, apparently. Doesn’t that just sound delicious?

“China produces about 70 percent of the farmed fish in the world, harvested at thousands of giant factory-style farms that extend along the entire eastern seaboard of the country. Farmers mass-produce seafood just offshore, but mostly on land, and in lakes, ponds, rivers and reservoirs, or in huge rectangular fish ponds dug into the earth.”

So next time you dig into some juicy jumbo shrimp, just think of all of that fun stuff that happened to it on the way to your mouth. Yum!

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