Brazil has served more than 5,600 metric tons of potentially contaminated shark meat in schools and other public institutions since 2004, a Mongabay investigation has revealed. Shark meat tends to have higher concentrations of toxic heavy metals, as top predators accumulate contaminants like mercury from lower down in the food chain. The metal and metalloid contaminants, which have been shown to cause brain damage, kidney damage and increased cancer risk, are especially harmful to young children. But of the nearly 6,000 public institutions across 10 Brazilian states that purchased shark meat, 90% were schools. Shark meat was bought by more than 1,100 nurseries and preschools. “You’re giving, every week, contaminated meat to children,” Nathalie Gil, director of Sea Shepherd Brazil, told Mongabay by phone. “It’s super absurd.” A study of blue sharks, one of the most common species caught and served as cação, a generic name for shark meat in Brazil, found that 40% of the animals caught off Brazil’s coast were found to have mercury exceeding the safe limit of 1 milligram per kilogram of body weight, or 1 part per million. Mercury concentrations in some of the sharks reached 2.4 mg/kg (2.4 ppm). In Duque de Caxias, a municipality of Greater Rio de Janeiro, nearly 200 public schools serve shark meat every other Monday. Solange Bergami, a local educator, said students routinely complain about the smell and taste of shark meat, and many refuse to eat it. Sharks have cartilage skeletons, which makes them easier to prepare and…