EATING FISH

[Wallyboss]

Here's a couple of stories from a couppe of years ago about Farm Raised fish.

Wild Salmon vs Farm Raised Salmon


David Suzuki Foundation: In January 2001, BBC News produced a program "Warnings from the Wild, The Price of Salmon". The program cited a pilot study conducted by Dr Easton with David Suzuki Foundation. The study found that farm raised salmon and the feed they were fed appeared to have a much higher level of contamination with respect to PCBs, organo-chlorine pesticides and polybrominated diphenyl ethers than did wild salmon. It concluded that it seems that contamination in farm fish comes from the feed.


EWG Report: In July 2003, the Environmental Working Group EWG released a report stating that farm raised salmon purchased in the United States contain the highest level of PCBs in the food supply system. In the report, EWG reported that farm raised salmon have 16 times PCBs found in wild salmon, 4 times the levels in beef, and 3.4 times the levels in other seafood. EWG recommends that consumers choose wild salmon instead of farm raised salmon, and they should eat an 8 oz serving of farm raised salmon no more than once a month.


Science Journal: In January 2004, the journal Science warned that farm raised salmon contain 10 times more toxins (PCBs, dioxin, etc.) than wild salmon. The study recommends that farm raised salmon should be eaten once a month, perhaps every two months as they pose cancer risks to the human beings.

So I think we should be happy to live so close to a great fishery like the Ottawa River.

[Mr. T.]

I would maybe stay away from the catfish. If you recall there was a lot of fish (mainly catfish) found dead last year at the end of the summer.

http://ottawariverkeeper.ca/files/fish_ ... ort_lr.pdf

[Eli]

i've eaten fish from both the rideau and the ottawa rivers, as well as many of the surrounding lakes, and i'm doing just fine. i don't glow green and i'm not sterile

[Lunker Larry]

Always have a number of good meals from winter caught walleye. Keep the size down to a max of 3 or 4 lbs and you should not have a problem. Been eating them since '92 with only a minor problem but now I'm used to it and the third arm now comes in real handy.

[Jebby]

you all have no idea.... id kill for water as nice as the ottawa.... im from windsor... i fish the detroit river as much as possible with only a few trips north to small lakes.... alot of the time the water is so nasty u cant see the prop on the motor.... ive seen all kinds of creations cought.... NO i wouldent eat a large catfish or sheephead or ANY carp ect but a small eye is asome....i dont often keep fish to eat however i wouldent fear anything kept small and taken in moderation (not bottom feeders) heck i know a great lil resterant that has all you can eat perch rate off the dock on tuesdays where do you think ALL there fish comes from.... enjoy every1... happy eating..... now wheres that insectacide apple?

[Jebby]

you all have no idea.... id kill for water as nice as the ottawa.... im from windsor... i fish the detroit river as much as possible with only a few trips north to small lakes.... alot of the time the water is so nasty u cant see the prop on the motor.... ive seen all kinds of creations cought.... NO i wouldent eat a large catfish or sheephead or ANY carp ect but a small eye is asome....i dont often keep fish to eat however i wouldent fear anything kept small and taken in moderation (not bottom feeders) heck i know a great lil resterant that has all you can eat perch rate off the dock on tuesdays where do you think ALL there fish comes from.... enjoy every1... happy eating..... now wheres that insectacide apple?

[Moosebunk]

Just as an example, the lake that MooseBunk brought FloatFishin to fish at last winter Lake Kesagami, as pretty well the same restriction as the Ottawa River. But you have all seen the pictures from the plane, that lake is miles away from any industry, actually miles away from anything, it is smack in the middle of Northern Ontario wilderness.
.

So I became annoyed one day last spring with the "Guide To Eating Ontario Sport Fish" that I had picked up in the fishing section at the Cochrane Canadian Tire. I was looking at the recommended servings of walleye per month for my children, Bren and I. As you folks are likely aware, I keep a good number of fish for the table. (82 walleye, 10 pike, 7 trout last year to be exact) In the book I was a tad bit surprised that Lake Erie (once rumored to be a cesspool of pollutants and trash but flushing out these day a little) had larger consumption restrictions on walleye than lakes and rivers up here, that I know do not have a single person, let alone industry polluting the waters. So I called the MNR with some specific questions.

"Hey Dooods" I says, "Why is it Lake Erie walleye are better for ya than Lake Kesagami and etc, etc, waterbody fish?"

Answer: We test mercury levels in walleye and that's about it. Walleye are a white meat, coarse fish and their belly meat holds little to no pollutants. Especially with the average size eaters. What walleye do retain well is mercury. Mercury levels are increased by the decay of vegetation (trees mostly) in water. Duh! Damming and flooding are good cause for that, but even a tree falling in the forest and rotting on the ground will increase mercury levels slightly through runoff.

So I was satisfied that, because if there's anything we have alot of in the north, it is trees. A fair bit of damming up river of me, and, weak soil conditions on alot of our river banks that every spring through flooding and break-up fall apart, dropping trees into the rivers especially, but lakes as well.

You don't see this sort of thing on the shorelines of Lake Erie, Ontario or even the Ottawa River so much. The log drive has long been over on the Ottawa River. The flooding in some springs spreads water over the same areas it has been doing so for a long time, and does so in places where generally shorelines can handle it. So, as far as eating walleye in numerous southern/eastern Ontario locations, it's likely better for you than the mercury filled garbage I am eating. (sort of kidding)

Signs of mercury toxicity are, numbness and tingling (parasthesias), lethargy, and cognitive impairment (git'in dumber) Mercury affects the central nervous system. A Study was done on Canada's guinea pigs (Native Canadians) They were soft water fishing guides to a specific area in the north. The predominant species there, walleye and pike. Pretty much daily the guides were cooking their guests shorelunches of walleye, sometimes even eating pike and walleye for dinner. Regular blood tests showed the guides blood mercury levels rise. As the season progressed some quizing was done, recording of specific symptoms if any... what they found was even though these guys were eating walleye, (from an area tested that had similar walleye comsumption restrictions to everywhere else in the north) that, most of them had no complaints at all. Numbness was reported in the study, and one may have had some memory or psychomotor concerns. Anyway, they continued to test the blood into the winter when the guides weren't working and eating nearly as much fish, and, mercury levels slowly dropped back down until back to nil (or natural unharmful levels) The body will expel this heavy metal in time.

Pregnant women should not eat walleye in most cases simply because, a fetus with a body mass measured in grams or less, and the mothers potential to pass mercury to the growing fetus, is not safe. A millimol. of mercury in an adult can be diluted by his/her body mass 100-600 times (depends on your size) greater than that of what a fetus can. In college terms, if you give a 19 year old 3 beers he might be just slightly buzzed but, if you give a newborn 3 it could possibly die. And so, with walleye consumption that is why the MNR will make more strict "recommendations" with children as well, for, they're smaller people.

A hint for feeding children fish, feed them the smaller fish that have potentially less mercury in them. Big fish eat bigger baitfish that tend to have bigger levels of pollutants within them. Hence, the old saying, "a nice eater size."

So I asked the MNR guy, what are the better fish to eat, and how do the species scale downward. (I'll try and recollect this perfectly, and, it also depends on where you live)

Whitefish are number 1. Good clean fish.
Pike ( I was surprised by this, but it's what the dood at the MNR said)
Walleye
Bass
Trout.

Now, this order would change depending on where you live. As, the trout we were referring to at the time were Great Lakes fish. Many folks know remote fish should be cleaner. Lake trout are fatty and store pollutants well. Brook trout don't live that long and don't tolerate polluted waters well, so, they're generally very clean fish. Bass, are middle of the pack. Largemouth tend to reside across the country along the boarder, where people do too, so they're likely to pick up people pollutants more easily. A northern shield lake smallmouth though, would potentially be much cleaner. The fella at the MNR said trout are tested more for pollutants while pike, walleye and whitefish are tested for mercury. The coarse fish don't harbour the pollutants nearly as much as the fattier belly meats of trout species.

Anyway, I made the decision last summer for the good of my own local fishery to keep river fish only for immediate consumption on the shore, if and when fishing with friends who request it, or when camping. Also, because of the dams further up river the Moose and Abitibi's fish test poorer than do fish from Kesagami, Harricanaw, M-Cabi and so I figure I'll take more from the fisheries that can both handle it, and, offer cleaner fish. When storing the meat I'll set aside smaller fish fillets for the kids, and label some ziploc'd fish "big filets" so that I know those would be better suited for chowder.

Look at the Guide book. The fella I talked with seemed to really know what he was talking about. He states, "they're conservative reccommendations" as the testing done on the fishes levels of mercury and pollutants are deemed safe," In other words, they test fish and consider the recommendations they make to be safe. To call their recommendations safe they must have to do so by testing to maximum safety for themselves or, they'd be opening themselves up to possible criticism.

Rambled on here, but I hope that adds some insight to the choice of wether or not you'll take the next bite.

[Suddsy]

Good contribution to this thread Moosebunk. As you have indicated common sense based on knowledge obtained from informed sources is the best approach to eating fish. I guess, for that matter, it applies to any of the food we eat

Suddsy

[BBRich]

I love eating fish.. I'll keep eating them until the 3rd arm pops out of my chest and strangles me to death!

[muskymike]

Can of worms!!! Great let's go catch a feed of crappies, my mouth is watering already.

I'll cook them up, I'll invite RJ and Joco and you can watch us stuff our face.

After reading and some research move over Dan make room for me at that table get out your best recipe im coming over for a crappie feast

[Wallyboss]

Hey MM you're invited!!!! But remember it's BYOC

Thanks MooseBunk that was very informative.

By the way I'm not a big fish eater. I'll eat walleyes + Panfish.

[RJ]

I love eating fish..

This concerns me....I think I'm going to stop eating fish now.

[Lookinforlunkers]

I usually eat about 150 Bass a season out of the Rideau, would this be considered to much

[RJ]

I usually eat about 150 Bass a season out of the Rideau, would this be considered to much

For some....One is too many...

[Moosebunk]

I usually eat about 150 Bass a season out of the Rideau, would this be considered to much

For some....One is too many...

RJ, you be ready to contribute some for the table come March. BTW, it's starting to snow.... 1 inch on the ground and counting.