Some media outlets got it right. They looked at the Nature Geoscience, August 2013 study titled Mercury isotope evidence for methylation below the mixed layer in the central North Pacific Ocean and reported that scientists had pinpoint the source of some mercury found in some fish. Period.

Other reporters did what other reporters do; extrapolate without actually reading the study. Thankfully we did read the study and can provide the following actualities to help those for whom facts, not sound-bite-science, are the basis of reporting.

This study did not compare current mercury levels in fish to past mercury levels in fish and there was no data showing that mercury levels in fish are higher or lower than they used to be.

This study did not look at the health effects of seafood or mercury.

Conclusions that fall outside those truths are not based in science and are simply speculation.