Sushi Tuna Comes with Side Effects

The New York Times' Marian Burros has an article today on high mercury levels in tuna sushi:

Recent laboratory tests found so much mercury in tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants that at most of them, a regular diet of six pieces a week would exceed the levels considered acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Burros also wrote a complementary article reviewing research on the ills linked to mercury:

Elevated mercury levels may be associated not only with neurological problems but with cardiovascular disease among adults as well...[Another] study also suggested that adults exposed to methylmercury might be at risk for vision loss and numbness of fingers and toes as well as blood pressure and fertility problems.

The deleterious health effects of eating contaminated fish are always of public interest. Burros' article on mercury in tuna sushi was the number one 'most emailed' on the New York Times list today (I can imagine Manhattanites terrified that their cold fingers are a result of too much sushi). But I wonder what all that mercury does to tuna?

Update (January 25th, 2008): According to Intrafish, the National Fisheries Institute (a seafood industry conglomerate) requested The New York Times issue corrections on five aspects of the story they found inaccurate. I find it a little ironic that the NFI accuses the NYTimes of bias...