Eating fish out of NSR?

[walleyewhiz]

I know it's not kosher, but does anyone eat fish out of the NSR on occasion anymore?

[cube]

I know it's not kosher, but does anyone eat fish out of the NSR on occasion anymore?

Quite a few dew. Especially away from major centers. Do have to follow the mercury guidelines though if eating from it every week.

[Talking moose]

Clean river. About the only rivers I wouldn't eat fish are rivers downstream of a pulp mill.

[Kurt505]

Clean river. About the only rivers I wouldn't eat fish are rivers downstream of a pulp mill.

Does it matter if the fish are caught upstream of the mill?

[Talking moose]

Does it matter if the fish are caught upstream of the mill?

Not really, I know they migrate, I just wouldn't eat a fish within a couple hundred km of a pulp mill, especially downstream. It's probably just me being over reacting but having worked a few shutdowns at Diashawa has turned me off.

[last minute]

I know it's not kosher, but does anyone eat fish out of the NSR on occasion anymore?
NOT ME:scared0018:

[58thecat]

One bite at a time...

[FlyTheory]

Heavy metals are stored in the fat though, so if you cut off the belly fat and lateral line fat, you'll have lower exposure to the mercury.

[cube]

Heavy metals are stored in the fat though, so if you cut off the belly fat and lateral line fat, you'll have lower exposure to the mercury.

From the state of New Mexico's Dept of the Enironment.
https://www.env.nm.gov/swqb/advisories/

"Cleaning and Preparation of Fish

You can remove much contamination by properly cleaning and preparing the fish you catch. This is particularly true for PCB- and DDT-contaminated fish. Handling fish will not result in exposure to dangerous levels of contaminants.

First, you should remove the skin, fat, and internal organs. When cooking fish, you can reduce the amount of PCBs and DDT stored in the fatty portion of the fish by grilling, baking, or broiling and letting the fat drip away. However, avoid frying fish, because frying seals in contaminants that may be in the fish’s fat.

Methylmercury is not stored in the fish’s fat, and therefore, there is no cleaning or cooking method that will reduce the amount of mercury in fish."

Just thought you would like to know

[cranky]

Im wondering if the fish from the river are any worse for contaminants then what can be in livestock.
Did some googling. I couldnt find any comparison charts.

[cube]

Im wondering if the fish from the river are any worse for contaminants then what can be in livestock.
Did some googling. I couldnt find any comparison charts.

Live stock fed a vegie diet should all be lower. Predators (most game fish) bio concentrate the mercury and since the NSR has fairly high natural source the predators in it will all be higher.

[Kale 19]

Bought some land on the NSR a few years ago and had the same question. Did a lot of research at the time. I can tell you that we absolutly enjoy the odd fish from the NSR. Is there naturally occuring mercury in the sedimentary soils on the river bottom? Yes, however such is the case for many lakes and rivers accross the country.

Mercury persists in more places than people like to think. If you ran a total metals or mercury analysis from a soil or water sample in your garden or water well, you might be suprised with what you find. Likely that mercury is present but in negligable concentrations, similar to the river.

I'm not saying this to scare anyone rather to offer context. Mercury will bio-accumulate primarily in filter organs and fatty tissues such as the liver, heart, and fat. There will also be more mercury in older/larger fish and again more in the more agressive predatory species such as walleye and pike.


With that being said, you are likely to find as much mercury in a can of tuna or salmon as a fresh fish from the river. Or think of it this way, people eat walleye from lakes surounded by agriculture and cottages where sewage, pesticides, fertilizers, and manure migrate into the waterbody. This introduces phosphates, nitrogen, pcb's and promotes alge blooms so bad your dog cant handle the water. Despite all this people eat the fish. The river on the other hand maintains fresh flowing water at all times, and is constantly flushing itself. No alge blooms, high oxygen content, so on so forth.

Just because it looks murky does not mean its dirty. Its simply silt and suspended solids, not a detriment to the water quality. The NSR has suprisingly high water quality characteristics. If your worried about what refineries release to it, know that at this point all such facilities are held to the conditions set out under the alberta environmental protection and enhancment act as well as the water act in which water released into the river would have to meet alberta teil 1 guidelines or surface water quality guidelines. Pretty high standards. My thought is that what comes from the outfalls as a result of run-off is likely much worse than what the plants are releasing.

Lastly, if your that worried, ask yourself this, if the total metals concentration were that bad and the water quality that poor in the NSR, what would be the first indicator? Dead aquatic species which is certainly not the case. In contrast to this, all fish species I've seen from the NSR are very healthy with no sign of ill health or deformity. We catch a pile of fish in the NSR every year and they range in species, size, and age. All appear to be thriving as a result of the environment the live in. Sturgeon living to be in excess of 50yrs? Water cant be that bad.

We do excercise moderation however and enjoy a few now and then. I am not an expert but have been very thourough on the subject for my own knowledge.

I hope this helps you make a decision. End of day you can always have one tested at any lab. Something I will do one day, just haven't got there yet.

Happy fishing!

[neilsledder]

Clean river. About the only rivers I wouldn't eat fish are rivers downstream of a pulp mill.


Clean my azz! I was jet boating through city this summer and hit a thunder storm. The run off that came into the river would make you puke. The amount of used condoms, tampons, maxi pads, dirty diapers, and needles was absolutely staggering! It was the grossest thing I ever saw! I bet I saw 500 condoms by the time I got off the river!

[Talking moose]

Clean my azz! I was jet boating through city this summer and hit a thunder storm. The run off that came into the river would make you puke. The amount of used condoms, tampons, maxi pads, dirty diapers, and needles was absolutely staggering! It was the grossest thing I ever saw! I bet I saw 500 condoms by the time I got off the river!

Lol, maybe clean isn't the right word. Water quality is good though. Ewwww!

[FlyTheory]

From the state of New Mexico's Dept of the Enironment.
https://www.env.nm.gov/swqb/advisories/

"Cleaning and Preparation of Fish

You can remove much contamination by properly cleaning and preparing the fish you catch. This is particularly true for PCB- and DDT-contaminated fish. Handling fish will not result in exposure to dangerous levels of contaminants.

First, you should remove the skin, fat, and internal organs. When cooking fish, you can reduce the amount of PCBs and DDT stored in the fatty portion of the fish by grilling, baking, or broiling and letting the fat drip away. However, avoid frying fish, because frying seals in contaminants that may be in the fish’s fat.

Methylmercury is not stored in the fish’s fat, and therefore, there is no cleaning or cooking method that will reduce the amount of mercury in fish."

Just thought you would like to know

Thank you, I assumed Mercury was lipophillic like a lot of toxins. I shouldn't have assumed.

[neilsledder]

Lol, maybe clean isn't the right word. Water quality is good though. Ewwww!


I go up stream from Devon all the time with the jet boat and the water is nice and clean. It was even clean in the city, but it was just the run off from the storm.

[Red Bullets]

If you eat shrimp that come from China, you should be willing to gobble up a few fish from the NSR.
Guidelines recommend eating fish from the river one time a week. That's 52 times a year. To eat the occasional fish for the river is fine.

I'm thinking eating at Ronny McD's 52 times a year would have a worst effect.

One thing I notice is that all the fish I catch in the river look to be very healthy. Can't say the same for some fish I see in the stores.

[RavYak]

The better question is do you eat fish from a store or supermarket? A fish out of the NSR is coming from cleaner waters then the majority of the fish found in supermarkets etc... The mercury content is often times not that much different either(Tuna on par with NSR pike for example).

The thing with the NSR is what do you plan on eating? Keeper pike are tough to come by, can't keep walleye, goldeye aren't worth eating. Good luck catching RMW. So leaves you with what, Burbot?