When You Can Eat Fish From City Rivers (and When Not)
In 2020, about 55 million Americans went fishing . Over 80% of Americans live in urban areas . This results in a lot of urban fishing, whether it’s Motor City dwellers throwing lines into the Detroit River , or Los Angeles fishermen fly-fishing for “sewer salmon” in the Los Angeles River’s industrial trench.
But can you actually eat a fish pulled from a city’s dirty pond and hope to survive? Surprisingly, this is sometimes possible – some urban waterways are about as clean as many rural waterways. This is not because urban rivers and lakes are particularly clean, but because rural watercourses are often polluted.
Pollution levels in urban watercourses vary widely
It’s easy to assume that all urban fishing should be strictly catch-and-release; city waterways just seem dirty. But feelings can be deceiving. Despite the post-apocalyptic appearance of the Los Angeles River, the water flowing down its concrete bed is 90% water treatment plants. It’s treated sewage, which sounds disgusting, but it’s actually carefully monitored and tested, and it’s pretty clean (unlike the other 10% of Los Angeles river water). On the other hand, this peaceful village creek in Bamfak, Montana may look idyllic, but may be fed by agricultural runoff filled with pesticides, or may be downstream from a chemical plant illegally pumping mercury into the groundwater. Bottom line: You can’t tell how polluted a body of water is by how it looks or if it’s in an urban setting or not.
How to tell if a fish you’ve caught is edible
Whether you are fishing in the wilds of Alaska or the East River in the Bronx, the level of pollution in the reservoir should be investigated on a case-by-case basis. No fishing spot is completely safe. All freshwater fish are potentially corrupted by modernity , but freshwater fish you catch yourself are especially problematic. Whether or not you should eat them ultimately depends on your own risk tolerance, but there are ways to reduce that risk.
Check out the list of fishery recommendations compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA maintains a huge database of fish and shellfish recommendations dating back to 1974. The agency collected fish and shellfish recommendations issued by federal, state, territorial, or tribal agencies across the country and organized them by location. Before you start eating, do your research to see if a warning has already been issued.
Call your local or state environmental health department.
The EPA database is a great place to start, but it’s not the end stop. There may be conditions and warnings that didn’t make it into the EPA’s database, and not all bodies of water have been surveyed, so you’ll have to dig deeper into the local area. Here is a list of State, Territory, and Tribal Fish Councils with contact information for each. Visit websites and call them for local conditions in which you want to fish. Also: You can try talking to people at the bait shop or where you apply for your fishing license.
Look for warning signs
If a waterway is found to be polluted or otherwise unsafe, signs must be posted along the shore to clearly indicate the potential hazard. Look for them near fishing spots.
Choose young fish
Because toxins and chemicals build up over time, younger and smaller fish are more likely to be “cleaner” than older ones. If you’re going to eat one of your catches, make sure it’s small (as long as it’s over the limit).
Eat panfish instead of oily fish
Panfish – freshwater fish that is usually placed in a pot – is generally considered safer to eat than oily fish like catfish or carp. Panfish feed primarily on insects rather than bottom food like their fatty friends, and this diet is less polluted. Because substances can accumulate in fish oils, less oil means less contamination.
Clean and cook fish properly
Removing the fish’s head and skin is the obvious first step, but make sure you get rid of all the fat and organs – that’s where the chemicals are likely to be most concentrated.
When it comes to cooking, it’s best to thoroughly bake, fry, or broil your fish. Frying may be the tastiest option, but it can isolate the chemical contaminants along with the fat.
As a rule of thumb when cooking fish, drain as much of the fat as possible, and remember that the fat you may use in the broth contains more contaminants than other parts of the fish, so do it sparingly or don’t do it at all.
Bottom line: you probably shouldn’t eat caught fish.
Summary: To reduce the dangers of eating freshwater fish, you must do a lot of research and end up eating small, skinny fish cooked in a way that makes them less palatable. If you’re thinking, “Why bother at all?” you are on the right track.
According to a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency analysis of fish tissue , virtually every wild-caught fish in the United States is saturated with PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds). These “timeless chemicals” are used in textiles, firefighting foams and elsewhere and have been accumulating in the environment since the 1940s. They are indestructible and everywhere. On average, freshwater fish caught in the US have PFAS levels 278 times higher than commercially sold fish—these fish are typically caught far out to sea, so are at least somewhat cleaner. And PFAS is just one type of pollution. Fish can be contaminated with mercury, PCBs, PBDEs, dioxins, chlorinated pesticides and bacteria of all kinds. It is far better to go the catch-and-release route than buying fish from the supermarket.