ATTENTION ALL THOSE WHO FISH PENNSYLVANIA WATERS

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
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From The Patriot-News:

Officials warn fishermen about harmful PCBs in trout
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Special to The Patriot-News

Most fish consumption advisories in the midstate will remain the same for 2006 under the updated list released last year by state officials responsible for monitoring Pennsylvania’s waterways and protecting public health.

However, they did issue a do-not-eat advisory for brook trout and a six-meals-per-year advisory for rainbow and brown trout due to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination in the Schuylkill River from the confluence of Mill Creek at Port Carbon to Auburn Dam in Schuylkill County.

The advisories are developed through a partnership of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the departments of Environmental Protection, Agriculture and Health. “Consumption advisories are not intended to discourage anyone from fishing or eating fresh fish in moderation,” DEP secretary Kathleen A. McGinty said. “Our goal is to make sure anglers have the best available information as they fish Pennsylvania’s waterways.”

The updated list also continued the one-meal-per-week advisory for all recreationally caught sport fish in the state. That policy was instituted in 2001 to avoid what was becoming an annual panic among anglers as similar advisories were issued for trout from individual hatcheries.

Only once since then has the commission needed to issue a special advisory for an individual hatchery. In spring 2002, a one-meal-per-month advisory was issued for trout from the commission’s hatchery at Huntsdale.

One meal is considered to be one-half pound of fish for a 150-pound person.

The advisories do not apply to fish raised for commercial purposes or bought in stores or restaurants.

Proper preparation generally includes trimming fat and broiling or grilling the fish to allow remaining fat to drip away. Juices and fats that cook out of the fish should not be reused for cooking.

P.S. This has been an ongoing issue. Some PCB’S occur naturaly but have been found in hatchery raised trout.

Eric “nighthawk”

American veteran and proud of it!

[This message has been edited by nighthawk (edited 05 December 2005).]

[This message has been edited by nighthawk (edited 05 December 2005).]

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Hi Nighthawk,

Maybe that information will decrease the number of fishers that practice C&K. That, or maybe the long-term effects of their diet.

Allan

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Mad Cow…

Bird Flu…

PCB’s…

Are Slim Jims safe???

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Hi Allan,
Interesting thought about the C&K types. I have nothing against keeping the odd fish here and there in particular if you know the fish will not survive. However when I’m hungry for trout I go to the local put and take lake or the super market. I wonder what effect this will have on license sales.

Bamboozle,
You forgot CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease)
Have faith, all will turn out as planned.

Eric “nighthawk”

American veteran and proud of it!

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This is the #1 reason I have not killed a fish in well over 15yrs… I just don’t trust to eat them from any public waters…

I have a tough time ordering haddock anymore these days…and I love the stuff!!

OH yes Haddock = Saltwater fish…I know…have you seen the stuff on tv…like planes& Ships dumping their sewage in the ocean…Also hear that 12 miles off the NJ coastline…Is where NYC takes there trash and dumps it…Medical waste floating along beaches…Sad sad world we live in …Indeed…

“I’ve often wondered why it is that so many anglers spend so much money on,and pay so much attention to.the details on the wrong end of the fly line.If they took as much care in selecting or tying their flies as they did in the selection of the reel and rod,They might be able to gain the real extra edge that makes it possible to fool a fish that has,in fact,seen it all before” A.K.Best

Everyone wants to excel in this sport but at the same time we let traditionalists place restrictions on our tactics, methods, and ideas. I always assumed that fly fishing was a sport that allowed imagination, creation, adaptation, investigation, dedication, education, revelation? : Fox Statler, On Spinners (Not the dainty Dry Fly kind) “Spinner’d Minner Fly”

“Wish ya great fishing”

Bill

[This message has been edited by billknepp (edited 05 December 2005).]

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Hawk

It is ashame that you can’t be comfortable eating the fish out of our home waters. In many of our PA waters it is pretty much put and take and I have no problem keeping a few fish from these streams and lakes. I think we need to all keeping supporting the efforts to clean up our waters.

Bill

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I have fished all over the country and on an occasion I get in the mood for fresh fish caught by yours truly (I am a traditionalist and do not need a grocery store for my fish). The problem with this post is not that someone takes home some fish to eat, but that the waters in Pa (my home state) and the water in some of our state hatcheries have PCB’s. What gives? We have more regulations and laws than at any other time in our history and the fish commission can’t raise a fish in clean waters.

Forgive the tone, I live in North Central Pa. and just experience one of the worst first week of deer season of my 44 years of hunting. Someone has to be held accountable for the fish and wildlife decline in this great outdoor state. We (the outdoorsmen) hear far too many excuses.

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I’m all for PCBs in our water. Look what it did for Spring Creek;-)

Now don’t anyone start hating. I said it tongue in cheek, although it really has helped Spring Creek tremendously by being closed to harvest…

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Although I have known of the threat of fish consumtion for a long time now, I am sickened every time I read about it.

Choose carefully when you go to the poles. Be aware of those legislators and politicians who foster this kind of environment for us to raise our children in.
Our Energy policy now (recent change which serves to only increase profits for large energy companies) allows for extremely old coal burning plants (like those in the Ohio area which impact these rivers) to be all but completely overhauled with modern machinery and equipment and not meet any of the current standards imposed on new plants, effectifely bypassing the Federal Clean air and water regulations.

If you find heavy metals in fish, you can invariably trace it back to coal burning (as well as other industrail processes).

This is precisely why I enjoy high Sierra stream fishing. This past year, I have been able to fish non-stocked wild trout at the source (headwaters). Although a trophy is a mere 14 inches, they are as close to natural as I have yet been able get. It is an important part of my total fishing experience to know that I am not wading in industrail waste.

Somewhere between all-out tree huggers and environmental genocide lies a guy with a fly rod in is hands wondering what the fu** happened.

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Swoosh you’ve misinterpreted the message I sent. The problem in Pennsylvania is not polluted waters in our streams (actually, like most of the country, our streams have been becoming cleaner every year and more streams are fishable in Pa. than ever). The problem is the PCB’s are coming from the materials used in our fish hatcheries. As our streams are cleaning up, the state is using materials that place PCB’s in their hatcheries.

On the other hand, could the state be using this as an excuse to stock less and less fish each year in the streams. Up here, most fish are stocked in the lake and the creeks are too much work to stock like they did ten years ago. Even now, the main holes are stocked and few are carrried to other parts of the stream to scatter the fish out.

In this part of the country we feel we do have representatives in the national government that balance the environment with progress. Now if we could just get drilling in the artic!

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Dear Board,

Hey, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger right?

If I’m not mistaken, the PCB’s in the Huntsdale Hatchery were traced to contaminated fish food, at least that was the last thing I heard.

As far as PCB’s in trout found in the Schuylkill River I don’t think many people eat those fish anyway. They just got sewers in that valley last winter.

When I was a kid growing up in Schuylkill County rats wouldn’t even live along the river. Things have come a long way.

Regards,
Tim Murphy

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I must say that I am very, very cautious about anything our fish commission and game commission puts out these days. It’s my opinion that both groups are greedy and will say anything to get more money. Not the wardens in the field, but the Commissioners. I have no faith in them. These two entities need to be overhauled from the top down. I gave up trying to fill my doe tag for WMU4e because the deer just aren’t there. How long before we give up fishing because poor management causes the loss of our hatcheries? The person(s) that let contaminated food into the hatcheries needs to be trained properly or the system fixed so that person(s) have the equipment to check for contamination. The fat cats in Harrisburg don’t need to increase our license fees, again, they need a big pay cut to pay for increased operating costs of the fish commission. Just my humble opinion.

Sorry about the rant.

Eric “nighthawk”

American veteran and proud of it!

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Coach,

Although these fish in PA are picking up PCBs in the hatchery, there are many lakes and streams throughout Canada and the US that have become completely dead from acidification from coal burning. What’s worse is that the stack gases contain high levels of mercury which ends up in the water (which has been acidified by the sulfer dioxides from the same process). When the heavy metals (namely mercury) end up in the acidified waters, the end result is a compound known as methyl mercury which is deadly poisonous to humans (as is elemental mercury by itself) and has long been known to cause terrible birth defects, and many other brain disorders in the indians cultures whose diet consists of fresh water fish. The fish consumption advisories are not new. Consumption of any fresh water fish is a risk now. If you think that your local politicians are able to protect you, think again. The affected regions are not the source of the problem. The prevailing winds bring this mess eastward. This is why people who live in remote areas of Maine and other Northeastern states have to enforce strict air quality regulations for automobiles in areas that have very few automobiles or industry.

The fact that hatcheries even exist should be an indication that there’s something wrong with the environment and the way we manage it as a society. Would there be any fish to catch if we didn’t stock?