Fats contained in Bermuda fish may be key to preventing heart disease - if we were eating them, according to a local anthropologist.

Dr. Philippe Rouja said looking to ocean to ensure health is something traditional hunter-gatherer societies have done for ages, but it is only in modern times that scientific analysis has begun to understand the wisdom of their habits.

Cold water fish are a well-known source of Omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids, Dr. Rouja told The Royal Gazette, which protects against cardiovascular disease as well as offering a number of other health benefits.

In particular, two components of n-3 - EPA and DHA - have shown the strongest links to improving human health if consumed in the right amounts.

"Basically, there is an inverse relationship between high fish consumption and death by coronary heart disease," Dr. Rouja said.

"Populations that eat large amounts of fish were found to have low prevalence of arterial thrombosis and cardiovascular disease."

The Inuit people of northern Canada have one of the lowest rates of heart disease in the world, Dr. Rouja pointed out, adding: "And these are big fat people who don't eat their vegetables."

But they do eat a lot of n-3 rich fish such as mackerel, salmon and halibut.

Unfortunately, other North Americans - and Bermudians due to our similar diets - only consume roughly one-tenth the n-3 needed for maximum health benefits.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Bermuda.

"We should be getting 850 milligrams and we're getting about 80 milligrams now," Dr. Rouja said.

Until recently, however, it was believed these n-3 fats were not present in warmer water fishes like those about Bermuda.

But after studying and living among Australian aborigines, in pursuit of his doctorate, Dr. Rouja found their diet was rich in n-3 which they were getting from tropical fish.

Rather than being found in the flesh of the fish, n-3 is embedded in fatty deposits of the intestine and the amounts found tend to fluctuate seasonally, he discovered.

"(The aborigines) specifically seek out these fish, and they only eat the fish when the fatty deposits are present," Dr. Rouja said.

This revelation immediately peaked the Bermudian's interest in looking for n-3 in local catches which he has been doing recently with the help of local fishermen "the Bean brothers" and funding from the Lepercq Foundation.

"Because I am from Bermuda, I obviously have a high interest in it, so I thought `why not'," he said. Dr. Rouja's study of local fish has found that almost all prevalent species contain n-3 in intestinal fat deposits during the cooler winter months.

Dr. Rouja said that Margate Snapper showed particularly high volumes of the fat deposits but said: "These findings are very preliminary."

The manner in which Bermuda might effectively harness the health benefits of his findings is also open to question.

Dr. Rouja suggests that the fat might be added to a fish chowder to hike up the health value of traditional favourite.

"It's also a question of getting the fishermen to bring it back," he said.

"And it would have to be safely harvested because of the association with the gut and intestines."

The aborigines tend to boil it down and dip meat in it or drink it, he said, or roast it with intestines.

Dr. Rouja suspects eating n-3 rich fat of local fish may be a "lost tradition" in Bermuda.

In addition to providing the cardiovascular health benefits, eating fish only when the fatty deposits are present provides a conservation spin-off as the deposits are smaller when fish are spawning.