Should You Eat That Fish You Caught In New York State?

You've decided to fill your freezer with fish this fall for the long winter.  How do you know if the fish you caught should be eaten?

There are some incredible fish in the waters of New York State.  Some of them are absolutely delicious to eat.  We've got everything from salmon and steelhead, to perch, and walleye that will all make for an incredible dinner.  That's just a few of the fish that people will reel in here in New York State.

But should you be eating them, or throwing them back?

Sadly, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is reminding people that sometimes these fish can absorb chemicals & contaminants from their environment that are bad for you.  The fish you pull in might look fine, but it could still be bad.  The good news is that they post current advisories often to guide people on what they should and shouldn't eat for their health.

Certain fish should never be eaten.  Others shouldn't be eaten depending on where they're harvested.  For example, perch and bass that you might catch in Lake Erie are normally ok, but they suggest you should never eat any fish you catch out of Scajacuada Creek due to high levels of PCB's.

To see the breakdown of fish by the body of water that they're found, click here.

With trout season coming to a close in October, and steelhead season just getting started around that time, you might want to brush up on which fish you should be keeping and which ones you should be releasing.  See the full list here.