This is the sort of story that is a tremendous challenge to cover in 90 seconds. Shooting the story wasn't too difficult because we had more reporters than photographers today (which meant I ended up doing a story with file video from previous stories I've done.. to simplify things). What is tough is trying to decide what is the most important information and what I must leave out.

William Lambert at OHSU works for the Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology. He had a great explainer on how the mercury gets into tuna in the first place. One of the main sources is coal fired plants which release elemental mercury into the air. That mercury settles into the water where bacteria absorb it. The elemental mercury gets changed into methyl mercury which is then passed up the food chain.. bacteria to phytoplankton... eventually on up to herring and then tuna.

The mercury comes to rest in the tissues of the fish. The older it is, the bigger it is, the more likely it is to have higher levels of this mercury concentrating in its tissues.

We eat the tuna and the mercury does essentially the same thing in us.

That explaination was :28 long. Needless to say I didn't have the time to include it.

Here are those links I promised you.

This is a link directly to the tuna information I found on the Consumers Report website:

This is the Consumer Reports main page.

http://www.consumerreports.org/

Next, we have the 2001 FDA talk paper on the issue. The FDA is under increasing pressure to revisit these guidelines:

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/2001/ANS01065.html

Here is the FDA/EPA response to the Consumer Reports article:

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01382.html

Here is the EPA information:

http://www.epa.gov/ost/fishadvice/advice.html

I found this PBS report:

http://www.pbs.org/now/science/mercuryinfish.html

And last but not least.. Oregon's recommendations which are even tougher than Consumer Reports when it comes to kids.

http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/envtox/fishconsumption.shtml

Phew. That's a lot of links!
Email me: sstricklen@kgw.com
A big hello to Scott who invited me to try the Mount Hood scramble. Judging by your description it sounds wild!!