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Fish Consumption Advisories Available for 2009

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The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) has updated the West Virginia Sport Fish Consumption Advisory for 2009.  West Virginia DHHR, through an interagency agreement, partners with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Division of Natural Resources (DNR) to develop consumption advisories for fish caught in West Virginia.  Fish consumption advisories are reviewed annually and help West Virginia anglers make educated choices about eating the fish they catch.  

Certain West Virginia sport fish have been found to have low levels of chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mercury, selenium and dioxin.  To protect the good health of West Virginians, the West Virginia DHHR offers an advisory for how often these fish can be safely eaten. An advisory is advice, and should not be viewed as law or regulation. It is intended to help anglers and their families make educated choices about: where to fish, what types of fish to eat, how to limit the amount and frequency of fish eaten, and how to prepare and cook fish to reduce contaminants.

This advisory covers only sport fish caught in West Virginia waters.  Safety regulations and advisories for fish in the market place are the responsibility of the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  For more information you can contact the FDA at: www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/mehgadvisory1208.html.

The following updated 2009 advisory recommendation is the result of reviewing new and recent fish tissue data.  Data collected from lakes and rivers in West Virginia show that a general statewide advisory of sport-caught fish is appropriate. A review of this information indicates that mercury, PCBs, and dioxin are the chemicals of the greatest concern. If you would like more detailed information about these contaminants and the levels measured, consult the DHHR Web Site at  www.wvdhhr.org/fish.

Changes to the current advisory are as follows:

• Advisory limiting consumption of brown trout to two meals a month has been removed. Brown trout are included in the one meal a week category with "all other species."
  
  
• Advisory limiting consumption of large black bass greater than 12 inches has been lightened. Black bass of all sizes can be consumed at two meals a month.



• Advisory limiting consumption of walleye and saugeye to one meal/month has been removed. These fish may be consumed more often at two meals a month.



• Advisory limiting consumption of black bass of all sizes caught from Sutton Lake to one meal a month due to mercury has been issued.



• Advisory limiting consumption of walleye caught from Summersville Lake to six meals a year due to mercury has been issued.



• Advisory limiting consumption of flathead catfish, all sizes, caught from Summersville Lake to one meal a month due to mercury has been issued.

Body weight and meal size are important factors in fish advisories. Use this chart to find the size of meal that corresponds to your body weight. This advisory is designed to keep the amount of chemicals you eat at a safe level.

Find the meal advice for the fish you’ve caught. “Do Not Eat” means you should not eat those fish because of higher contamination. The other groups (“One Meal a Week”, “Two meals a Month”, “One Meal a Month”, and “Six Meals a Year”) are advice for how often to eat fish.  

Women of childbearing age, children, and people who regularly eat fish are particularly susceptible to contaminants that build up over time. If you fall into one of these categories, you should be especially careful to follow the meal sizes and space fish meals out according to the advisory tables. 

Your body can get rid of some contaminants over time.  Spacing the meals out helps prevent the contaminants from building up to harmful levels in the body. For example, if the fish you eat is in the “One Meal a Month Group”, wait a month before eating another meal of fish from any restricted category. Occasionally eating fish in quantities slightly greater than the advisories recommend, such as during an annual fishing vacation, should not present a health hazard.

Follow the advice presented in this advisory, noting the differences between the General Advisories for all West Virginia waters and the more restrictive Specific Advisories.  

More restrictive advisories issued in 2009 affect the following water bodies: