Editor’s note: This story originally published in 2024.
Python Hunter Bayo Hernandez prefers to grind his snake like a hamburger meat with ketchup, mustard and mayo. Another hunter I like the scourge of numbing Everglades in frying or chili.
And there is always the recipe of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay for Python cubes in a sheath of lettuce, pineapple and jalapeno.
But recently the Florida Ministry of Health has set up a “don’t consume Python” advice caught in the country, regardless of the size of the snake due to the risk of unhealthy mercury levels in its meat.
The recommendation that annoys at least one scientist who said that the pythons caught in the southwestern part of the state have lower levels of mercury means an emergency scheme to help raise APEX predators by making them a dinner tariff is a non-goal.
“It’s a pity. I don’t know how much it would be if people consume pythons, but it certainly doesn’t hurt,” says Darren Rumbold, Professor of Maritime and Earth Sciences of the Gulf of Florida.
Like fish, the department could make recommendations for portions or certain regions where mercury levels make it dangerous to eat animals caught there, Rumbold said.
“I think the health department was too cautious, saying that let’s not let anyone eat it,” he said.
It is unclear when the Python Consultation Council was issued. Numerous calls and emails to the Ministry of Health were not returned. But the results of the toxicology of 487 snakes examined by the department, and this led to the consultations were explained on March 8, 2024, a letter to the non -deployment coordinator of the wildlife of FWC McCila Spencer,
The letter received by requesting the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission was from the administrator of the health department Michael Mitchell. He notes that since there is no known size of snake nutrition, the standard 8 ounces used for fish have also been used in Python tests.
In addition to testing mercury levels in Pisces, collected by both fresh and seawater, Mitchell said the FWC also tested the levels of mercury in the pythons because “consumers ask if the meat is safe to eat.”
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The result of the Health Division in connection with FWC was an advisor “Don’t Consume Python”.
This does not mean that this is against the Python Eating Act, it is simply not recommended, according to the FWC Python Challenge website.
Why is mercury harmful if consumed in the meat or fish of python?
Civil servants monitor mercury levels, as the natural chemical element is neurotoxin, which can disrupt brain function, damage the kidneys and harm the nervous system, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. It is especially harmful for unborn babies and young children.
Hernandez, who is a Python contract hunter for the southern water management region in South Florida (SFWMD), said he knows that mercury levels can be high in the pitons. This is not the food it has every day.
“But there are many recipes outside and you can experiment,” he said. “If you do it in pieces, it’s very difficult and chewing. How you season how it goes to taste.”
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Studies find more vigilance levels in some pythons in Florida depending on the area
Rumbold studies Python’s mercury levels in areas near Naples. He published a document in 2019 in an environmental and toxicology pollution newsletter for discoveries. His co -author was Ian Bartoshek from the conservation of Southwestern Florida.
Their study found a smaller level of mercury in the snakes of southwestern Florida than those in the Everglades National Park. Park pythons were found in a 2012 survey by the US geological survey to have “amazingly high” mercury levels.
Much of the mercury in Florida comes from the pollution in the sky, it is raining from rising clouds that catch it in the upper levels of the atmosphere. Burning coal, oil and wood can put mercury into the air.
In the Everglades National Park, mercury can be mixed with sulfur coming from agriculture upstream. Sulfur is oxidized to sulfate, which charges germs that turn mercury into methyl mercury, which is what accumulates in the food chain.
Because in southwestern Florida it is drier, there is less heavy fish consumed by animals that are then consumed by pythons, Rumbold said.
“Mercury biomagnet as it passes through the food chain. The more pythons are integrated into a water network, the more likely they are to have mercury,” Rumbold said.
The 2019 study also found a small link between the size of Python, the age and the level of mercury. In the ocean, the largest, the oldest fish, which feeds on a smaller prey, usually have the highest concentrations of mercury.
Rumbold believes that the health department could be selected to allow the consumption of Python from snakes caught in the southwestern region of the state, similar to consultations issued for fish on the basis of where they are caught.
“They don’t want to watch the pythons over time, so they don’t want to issue something that is specific to the region,” Rumbold said.
Florida seriously started hunting pythons in about 2012. In 2017, the Water Management Region in South Florida and FWC started a more stated Python hunters.
The Python Donna Kalil hunter makes an omelet for a snake-yoke.
More than 14,500 pythons have been removed from FWC and the area united to combat invasive species. The most removed pythons in one year are 2629 in 2020.
Hype around Python hunters in Florida and the annual Challenge Python attracted the Ozzy Osbourne rocker, who is involved in hunting his show “World Thor of Ozz & Jack”. Chef Gordon Ramsay grabbed and prepared a python for his show “The F Word”. Ramsay said the python was dry and tough, so he added bacon fat and grounded it the way Hernandez likes it.
Hernandez said he was eating invasive iguani.
“Every time my children come, I surprise them,” Hernandez said. “If you ask my biggest son, what is the most sophisticated thing he ate, he will say,” I don’t know, ask my father. “
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for Palm Beach Post, part of Florida’s USA Today network. It covers real estate and how growth is reflected in the middle of South Florida. Subscribe to dirt for a weekly real estate summary. If you have news tips please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Burmese Pitons: Florida snakes can be eaten, but the levels of mercury high