SoCal Asian Communities Aim to Weed out Toxic Fish

John Fallan's trained eye scans rows of iceboxes brimming with tiger fish and shrimp in a Vietnamese supermarket, searching for one pesky fish that threatens the health of seafood lovers.

In a Thursday, June 4, 2009 photo, Hoang Van Nguyen holds milkfish at Thuan Phat market in...

In a Thursday, June 4, 2009 photo, Hoang Van Nguyen holds milkfish at Thuan Phat market in Westminster, Calif. State and county authorities are inspecting Asian markets in Southern California to try to weed out the sale of white croaker, which has been contaminated by chemicals released into the Pacific Ocean from the 1950s to the 1970s. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

(AP)

Authorities say the white croaker has become a popular catch in local Asian communities. But when reeled in off a stretch of California's coastline southwest of Los Angeles, the fish has been laced with cancer-causing toxins stored from decades of chemical dumps near the scenic shore.

Fallan leads a team of wardens from the California Department of Fish and Game to hunt down the white croaker on fishing piers, landings and in Vietnamese and Chinese markets across Southern California, where in recent years the silvery, fatty fish could be found in droves.

"It's a massive effort," said Fallan, a lieutenant specialist with the department. "We can't keep up with all these markets and restaurants and retailers."

Between the 1950s and 1970s, Montrose Chemical Corp. — the world's largest producer of DDT — and other companies released tons of the pesticide into sewers that emptied into the Pacific Ocean off the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Other companies discharged chemical compounds known as PCBs.

Federal and state government agencies sued them in 1990, and $140 million in settlements is being used to find the fish and reduce the effects of the pollution.

Eating white croaker poses potential harm to humans because it doesn't metabolize pollutants like other fish off Southern California's coast, said Michael Franklin, a marine biology professor at California State University, Northridge.

While no cancer cases have been directly linked to its consumption, regularly eating the fish off the Palos Verdes Peninsula carries 60 times the cancer risk of eating rockfish or kelp bass from the same area, the Environmental Protection Agency said.

While California banned commercial fishing of white croaker stretching three miles out from the peninsula in 1990, the fish can be found farther to the north and south. However, there is no way to tell the difference between a polluted and clean fish without testing it.