United Press International

Published: April 4, 2007 at 3:03 PM
By JULIA WATSON
UPI Food Writer

WASHINGTON, April 4, 2007 (UPI) -- Across the world this week, shoppers are bringing home fish for Passover, Good Friday, Eastern Orthodox and Christian Easter feasts. But we are increasingly in danger of being exposed to harmful fish, experts say.

Scientists from around the world met recently in New Zealand for the 6th International Conference on Molluscan Shellfish Safety. Keynote speakers talked of the increasing dangers from biotoxins and the challenge of setting new safety standards to detect the increase of these dangers in mollusks and shellfish.

Harmful algal species can affect the health of people consuming commonplace seafood, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. Cases of finfish and shellfish may contain naturally occurring harmful toxins. They can be mussels, grouper, snapper, mackerel and more exotic species from places such as South Florida, the Florida Keys, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Hawaii.

At various times, clams, lobsters, oysters and scallops from the North Atlantic and North Pacific waters of North America also contain harmful marine algae or toxins.

Ciguatera is the most commonly reported marine toxin disease in the world, according to Lora E. Fleming of the Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center of the University of Miami. It's contracted by people who eat fish that have ingested a type of algae called dinoflagellates.

Although ciguatera afflicts 50,000 people a year, the disease is under-diagnosed and under-reported. The diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain is followed by neurological dysfunction. Muscular aches and dizziness, anxiety and sweating also occur. Most alarming is the reversal of temperature sensation, and tingling of digits and mouth. In rare cases, paralysis and death have resulted. Recovery time could take days if treated rapidly, or weeks to years.

Global warming seems to be behind ciguatera. As ocean temperatures rise, coral reefs are becoming overrun with algae that feast off hazardous runoff polluting the sea. The obvious way to avoid it is not to eat any reef fish.

Seeking advice on what fish to eat is not hard -- plenty of marine-focused groups issue consumer guidelines for seafood. Tom Green, recently installed as executive chef at the Kennedy Center in Washington -- where he oversees a team producing dinners for around 900 people a night -- keeps in touch with California's Monterey Bay Aquarium (http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp.)

"They have a watch list of what we can serve," he told Eat To Live. The list tells him which species come from sustainable fish stocks. He doesn't feature any reef fish on his menus.

But while ciguatera poisoning is rare, the problem of fish affected by other harmful microalgal species is far wider and growing, the Conference on Molluscan Shellfish Safety reported.

This is not to say we should stop eating seafood. But it seems to be more evidence of a future under global warming where we shall all, providers and consumers, have to increase our vigilance about the natural food supply.

Nature's free food supply is about to come into play with spring. As well as preparing their celebratory fish dishes, people around the Mediterranean basin and in rural France and Italy are headed out this Easter weekend with knives and baskets. It signals the start of the wild food season. Everywhere you come across the bent backs of women digging wild leaves from the fields for fresh salads.

And you bump into cooks in Washington doing the same.

In the English Park -- below Montrose Park on R Street in Washington's Georgetown district -- Anna Meliagrou, a visitor from Athens, was pulling up young dandelions by their roots. "You pick them before the flowers open," she said. "After that, the leaves become tough and too bitter."

She will toss them with oil and vinegar to make a salad with a taste reminiscent of endive or radicchio. In France, young dandelions and the buttons of the still-closed flowers are folded into beaten eggs to make an omelet that crunches and tastes a little of spinach. Pis-en-lit, the plants are called in French -- pee-in-the-bed, for their diuretic qualities.

Look carefully among the parks for the fleshy leaves of pink-stemmed purslane. They're plump, a little like a young green tick, and give a lemon bite to salad. But as with all wild food, remember to wash it well before you use it.