MERCURY TRAVELS FROM FISH AND SHELLFISH TO MAN

   It is true that methyl mercury in the effluents, when discharged into the sea, is diluted, but it is also true that, as it travels through the food chain, it is concentrated tens or hundreds of thousand-fold and accumulates in the internal systems of marine creatures. Methyl mercury is absorbed by plankton that are eaten by fish and shellfish. It is also directly absorbed through fish's gills and skin. Some fish, like striped mullets, take their food with the mud at the seabed, and the mercury sediments in the mud go into their systems. Fish, too, got Minamata Disease. Then came birds, cats, dogs and pigs that ate these fishes. Finally, man became ill. Local inhabitants were horrified and panic-stricken at the "Cat's Dancing Disease" or the "Strange Disease".