Eating Lake Ontario Fish

[Snidley]

I was fishing the Whirlpool this spring and the guy who does the local testing was there angling for Bows and Lakers to test. He told me that even the spottails in the Niagara are contaminated . Bows, Lakers, Bass etc even SMELT are not fit for human consumption. According to this chap, there is definitly a problem in western Lake O and the Niagara but also the federal governments guidlines have gotten much more stringent over time as well. i was suprised to see that Walleyes from my area of Lake O (Oakville) are quite edible but Trout, salmon Sheepies etc of the same size are not. It's odd to me because they seem to eat the same forage from the same waters so what gives. By the way I ate a Sheephead this year and it was quite tastey, then I discovered , from the eating guide that they are not safe to eat. They're a female dog to clean as well so you need a big one to get any fillets off of it. I do know the Chinese grocery stores sell Sheepies, Buffalo Fish and my favorite White Bass and White Perch which look virtually the same to me. All in all I'm very leary of eating big fish of any species these days . Snidley

[jwl]

lots of fish like salmon and trout have different fat stores than other types of fish,and live at different depths through out the year...therefore they store toxins differently like lead and pcb's..that's why for certain species of fish they have cleaning guidlines as well , they say to cut so much off the stomach and back areas of these fish..because that's where they store fat and ultimately higher levels of contaminants...same as fish from the world's oceans but no one puts much hede into that when they buy fish at the store really if ya think about it

[jwl]

beer is bad for ya too if you think about it..but I bet ya people would still drink that even if they told ya it had monkey spit in it

[Guest Rockfish]

Yep, pollution is everywhere and some ppl might want to plug those air conditioning holes in the floors of their vehicles and also not leave their vehicles idling in park to inhale the fumes.

[smerchly]

The Consumer Guide to eating fish from the Great Lakes was written by the CRAPO .......( Catch-Release-And-Putbackindawater Or-else ) heh heh........If the fish were that bad , we would have a lot of people who eat fish by the five gallon pails glowing in the dark !