Caught this article in the news yesterday about contaminants in our freshwater fish including a quote from Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Mike Helfrich.
With the exception of a few walleyes caught over 30 years ago while fishing with a friend near Tunkhannock, I've not consumed any fish from the Susquehanna, primarily because I'm a catch & release guy at heart.
Perhaps the PFBC and/or local officials should consider signage in multiple languages at high-traffic access sites along our major rivers, or possibly handing out brightly-colored cards with every fishing license sold. If people are taking the fish they catch home...chances are they are eating them.
DANGER / PILEGRO / 危机 / PANGANIB
Later.
The concern about eating fish is warranted but I believe it pales in comparison to the poorly publicized danger of chronically consuming drinking water with low level pollutants (what are also called emerging contaminants or endocrine disruptors).
ReplyDeleteThe effect of these chemicals, even at low doses, on gene expression, especially in developing fetuses and the young and the old, may be a cause for many of the unexplained rises in human "diseases" that we see today.
Don't eat the fish!! But also ...Don't drink the water that the fish swim in!!
Bill: Within our time, we are witnessing the death throes of a river.
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