Just across the water from the intensely industrialized Zug Island, Kevin Morris shows off the bass he caught in a Detroit River canal. "Driving here, it's like entering another world," said Morris, who lives in Detroit. "It's almost what a Third World country would look like." | Ami Vitale/Panos Pictures Kevin Morris of Detroit fishes with his mother-in-law, Mary Lee. He eats only predatory fish, which are migratory. Health advocates routinely pass out flyers along the river warning that certain kinds of fish shouldn't be eaten because they might be contaminated. | Ami Vitale/Panos Pictures Just across the waterway from Morris's fishing spot is Zug Island, home to a steel mill and piles of coal. | Ami Vitale/Panos Pictures

Kevin Morris
Detroit, Michigan

There are signs posted all up and down the Detroit River that tell you what type of fish have the most contaminants. It's a scale from good to bad, with the fish that are good at the top. Those are the ones I eat, the ones on the top.

I only eat predatory fish: walleye, perch, silver bass, muskies, northern pike, like that. They don't sit in one spot like, say, a catfish. That's a bottom-feeder, so whatever's on the bottom, they're going to contain it. Around here it's mercury.

See those piles over there across the water? That's coal. Stand here during a northwesterly wind and you can feel it. You get it in your nose, your ears, on your clothes. I wouldn't recommend anyone fishing out here when the wind's blowin' from that direction.

Seems to me there should be some type of screen over it. But I'm only a guy that's fishin', versus a billion-dollar corporation. (Interviewed August 15, 2012)

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