Why Don't We Eat Largemouth Bass?

Largemouth bass is the most popular gamefish in America — tens of millions of anglers, a billion-dollar industry, and prize money in the hundreds of thousands. And almost none of it ends up on a plate. In this video we dig into the real reason bass gets thrown back almost every time: the mud-flavor myth, the mercury bioaccumulation that actually is real science, and the untold story of the man who reshaped an entire sport’s relationship with a fish it used to eat freely.

Timestamps:
00:00 – The paradox: America’s favorite fish nobody eats
1:15 – The muddy taste myth and the worm scare
2:57 – Mercury bioaccumulation and why bass concentrate it
4:12 – The mystery contamination alone can’t explain
4:52 – Ray Scott, Beaver Lake, and the birth of B.A.S.S.
6:23 – How one campaign helped shape the Clean Water Act
7:29 – What actually changed wasn’t the fish

References:

Scott, R. — Bass Anglers Sportsman Society founding history, Bassmaster / Bass Fishing Hall of Fame archives
U.S. EPA, National Listing of Fish Advisories: Questions and Answers, 2011
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Bioaccumulation in North Carolina Fish
Purdue University Extension, Fact Sheet — Mercury Update: Impact on Fish Advisories
U.S. Geological Survey, Mercury Contamination of Aquatic Ecosystems, Fact Sheet 216-95
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Mercury Testing Program data on largemouth bass as an indicator species