Are Fish Safe To Eat?

[The Fisherman Guy]

More importantly for Albertans; Our fish safe to eat?

Alberta Outdoorsmen readers will be familiar to the topic as a recently published article by Duane Radford in the January 2014 issue highlights important specifics.

Many sources on the subject can be found online, including recent studies conducted in Alberta lakes and rivers and the Methylmercury content of various game fish. Mr. Radford's article dutifully provides a link to the Health Alberta site, detailing numerous studies and important local information.

As an angler who eats the occasional catch, specifically in Alberta, staying on top of the levels of naturally occurring toxins in local fish is as important as a coastal shell fisherman who monitors the activity of red tides to avoid Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP). Lucky for Albertans, we do not need to worry about PSP, but we do need to consider the health of consuming safe volumes of fish caught in our local waters.

If you haven't read the January issue yet, it's a good one. Thank you and kudos to Mr. Radford for a helpful and insightful article.

[RavYak]

No if you eat any fish you are going to die.

Unfortunately we are all going to die anyways so you might as well eat fish anyways. No point on missing out on life because you are afraid to live it...

I really wish people would stop making mountains out of mole hills on subjects like this...

[The Fisherman Guy]

RavYak; Your arguable opinion may benefit from educating yourself and those who you teach.

Perhaps the studies show that there isn't anything to be concerned about? That would put me in agreement with you.

Did you read them?

[BeeGuy]

Didn't read the article, but I have read many of the available studies in Ab and have posted links etc before

Also have read published articles in scientific journals.

My take is that our fish in AB fall within the average range of Hg found in commercial fishes.

Unless you are eating fish everyday, you will be fine.

That is my take away from what I have read anyways.

[SNAPFisher]

It is just me or is the tension in here hitting stupid levels....

I think the Op was just expressing a good article and not making a mountain here. I'm interested in just knowing. If your not interested, don't read it. Ignorance is bliss

At least Rakvak and I agree that might as well eat em! If I die by anything related to fishing, including eating them, "Then, it was a good death".

[RavYak]

Life expectancy has over doubled in the last 200 years. Do you think that is due to the increased pollution that we are subjecting are food sources to? How about that there is actually more likely less pollution in a lot of these lakes and waters then there was 50 years ago when environmentalism was practically unheard of.

The major item affecting AB fish is mercury and if you read the articles and health advisories on the subject you would know that the majority of this mercury is naturally occurring and also that even in the worst polluted areas open to fishing you would have to eat fish more then once a week for a matter of years or decades in order to get sick. Most people don't eat close to even a half that much and almost no one does out of these handfuls of waters with these advisories...

Eating fish out of our water is safe as long as you follow the regular precautions and advisories that SRD etc give to us. When they feel like a lake etc is unsafe they close it like they did Wabamun. Lets not forget that Canada in general is one of the highest regulated countries in the world when it comes to things like food and public safety. You can't do anything that might hurt yourself or others... Don't believe me try going to work without a hard hat etc... Eating a fish out of Alberta waters that SRD etc considers safe for human consumption is most likely healthier then eating 90% of what you will buy in a supermarket or from a restaurant. Don't believe me travel to Vietnam and other places like that and see how lots of the worlds food is raised and how poor the standards are in comparison with ours. Most of these countries wouldn't even bother to test all these rivers and lakes let alone warn people if there was an issue...

That is all I have to say on the matter, feel free to research it further if you want. I for one have a hell a lot more to think about and worry about then whether or not eating the odd fish from Alberta waters is going shorten my life expectancy by a matter of days.

Edit: Oh and my posts have nothing to do with the OP's articles or even post in general. They are directed at the general topic of this subject. The whole argument that fish in AB etc may not be safe to eat. Imo it doesn't take a genius or even any scientific research to realize that eating fish isn't going to harm you. But no doubt people will try and make a living off of writing articles and persuading companies to pay them to look into potential situations like this...

[bat119]

A little trick from Saskatchewan if your worried about mercury in fish
Hang them upside on a clothesline then when it's gets cold cut the heads off

[pikergolf]

While I would consume the mercury fish at less than the recommended guideline, I would not feed it to my children.

[MoFugger21]

The answer to your question is yes.

[HunterDave]

Originally Posted by bat119

A little trick from Saskatchewan if your worried about mercury in fish
Hang them upside on a clothesline then when it's gets cold cut the heads off

Nice!