The Basel Convention Regional Centre for the Caribbean will son be starting to project to test the levels of mercury in fish in the region:

Trinidad and Tobago is one of several Caribbean countries that will soon be participating in a biomonitoring project to evaluate mercury levels in fish regularly consumed in the region.

Titled Fish Mercury Biomonitoring in the Caribbean Region, the project “seeks to determine the mercury concentration of commonly consumed fish species. The species to be sampled will be determined on a national basis,” said Jewel Batchasingh, acting director of the Basel Convention Regional Centre for Training and Technology Transfer for the Caribbean Region (BCRC-Caribbean).

BCRC-Caribbean provides services for the implementation of important conventions, including the Minamata Convention on Mercury, to which countries in the region are signatories, with a view to helping these states fulfill their convention obligations.

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The Fish Mercury Biomonitoring in the Caribbean Region project is scheduled to begin soon. Funded by the government of Switzerland, which is a party to the Minamata Convention, “the project will involve the collection of five to ten samples each of five to 12 commonly consumed fish species in each of the participating countries but to cover only 40 samples in total,” Batchasingh told SeafoodSource.

“The selection of fish species to be sampled as well as the locations for collection of samples will be informed by the governments of each of the countries in collaboration with the technical consultants to determine species of concern,” Batchasingh added.

Read more at Seafood Source.

[Image: Bart & Co]