# MI fish advisory



## GRUNDY (Jun 18, 2005)

Has anyone read this guide? http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdch/MDCH_EAT_SAFE_FISH_GUIDE_-_SOUTHWEST_MI_WEB_455360_7.pdf
I kinda feel bad for feeding great lakes salmon and trout to my family.


B


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## danthebuilder (Nov 22, 2011)

I think this is an important part of the guide to point out. 



> *Scientists from MDCH test ONLY the filet of the fish - the part that you would eat - to determine the guidelines included in the ESF Guide.*


Finally killing the entire fish goes into a blender argument once and for all.


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## OneidaEagle (Sep 25, 2008)

I just read it, and am not sure what to think, as every year we (government) finds more and more wrong with every thing.


Movie Popcorn, Bad
Hot Dogs, Bad
Crystal Light, Bad
Acid Rain, Bad

Anything you buy from us, and goes through USDA = Good


Its all in moderation, I would belive, but then the flip side, people have been eating the products (Fish) for years with no issues.

Oh my favorite line from the movie Shooter, when they are talking about Government conspiricay, "And Anna Nicole married for love......."




Anna Nicole married for love.......


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## blackghost (Oct 2, 2010)

It seems they really lowered the consumption limits this year. It may have to do with switching the agency coming up with the recommendations. I know I eat a lot more salmon than the advisory says I should.


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## toppm (Dec 30, 2010)

I really don't worry about myself and wife, but I try to limit my kids. I do a lot of ice fishing so it kind of puts a damper on how much they can eat.


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## stockrex (Apr 29, 2009)

Anna Nicole did marry for love and so do all the other gold digging women like her, it is love of $$$$ ;-)

Saying Pure Michigan is like saying Anna Nicole was a pure women!
Just go to the pediatric oncology dept at spectrum, and count how many kids with brain tumor/cancer are there from the UP.


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## Robert Holmes (Oct 13, 2008)

Did they ever test beef,pork, chickens, and other farm animals? I find it amazing that suckers are one of the better fish to eat.


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## danthebuilder (Nov 22, 2011)

Did you guys miss this part?



> You may choose to eat more fish than the ESF Guide recommends. These
> guidelines are not rules; it is your choice. And not everyone will get sick
> from eating too many of these chemicals. The chemicals in the fish won&#8217;t
> make you sick right away, either. Some people will be fine after years of
> ...


No conspiracy.


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## buckykm1 (Dec 19, 2011)

I have always felt that you can eliminate a lot of the chemicals, by how you clean a fish ?. I never keep any of the belly meat, and I don't filet real close to the skin.
I am not sure if that helps ?.
but I have been eating fish from LK. MI. for over 40 yrs.
and I don't glow in the dark yet. lol

Kevin


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## fisheater (Nov 14, 2010)

I do not in the least dispute the advisory. However, some of the not recommended for consumption fish end up in our supermarkets, and in supermarkets across the country. 
Walleye have a recommended consumption advisory of approximately six meals per year, do you see any advisories in the supermarket? I would be curious what the advisories would be if the same methodology was used for supermarket beef, chicken, and pork.
Our mercury comes from our coal burning power plants. I would think nuclear could possibly be an option, and yes I do remember Fukushima. I do think it would be a far more polluted would without electricity, and I don't believe windmills will provide the power produced by a coal power plant.
So the question becomes, if we are putting enough mercury into our environment that our fish are not suitable to be a regular part of our diet, are we really reducing risk by limiting consumption? I really don't know the answer, it is an honest question. I question how a walleye that has lived in the same environment as me, can be toxic after three or four years through bio-accumulation, but I have been drinking Great Lakes water, eating Michigan crops, etc, for over 50 years? Thank you


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## stockrex (Apr 29, 2009)

Robert Holmes said:


> Did they ever test beef,pork, chickens, and other farm animals? I find it amazing that suckers are one of the better fish to eat.


older the fish more crap it accumulates in its body. not sure if the crap is concentrated in any specific part of the body,

you could send a piece of your fish to get mass spec'd. Not sure how much it costs here but should not cost more than $30.

most fish in our supermarkets are sourced from gawd knows where,
I eat salmon from wallys, grown in their farms off the coast of chile, yummy.


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## Fowlersduckhunter (Oct 28, 2011)

Everything will you eventually. If eating too much fish is the way I roll out, I'd say I had a pretty successful go.


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## buckykm1 (Dec 19, 2011)

If you look at the packages of fish & seafood that you buy at a Store or get from a Restaurant,
tons of it comes from China, that worries me a lot more then the Fish from LK. MI. JMHO.
Check the Bar Code on packages of Seafood, and if Bar Code begins with 690,691 or 692 it is from China.

Kevin


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## GRUNDY (Jun 18, 2005)

Most peoples thoughts on the subject mirror my own.

Its just a little unsettling to read something like that, than head on over to the fridge for my 10th serving of smoked steelhead for the week after eating a family meal including steelhead, and the apparently nearly inedible brown trout.! LOL


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

Where the chemicals end up in the fish depend on if they are water or oil soluble. The oil soluble ones end up in the fat, which you can trim to some degree, but the water soluble ones are throughout the muscle. Those usually do not accumlate too much.

I don't eat a lot of fish, so I don't worry too much. But I'd rather serve my kids some small coho or browns instead of farm raised who knows what.

If it worries you this much, eat fatty beef instead of fish. You'll probably die faster. But at the cost of beef vs. what it costs to fish, you may have more money to leave behind.


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## jailbait (Jan 22, 2015)

I mostly eat bluegill, crappie and perch. The more fish a fish eats, the higher the mercury and pcbs. Eat bluegills and you'll be alright. One side effect of fishing is drowning, but that doesnt stop me from doing what I love.


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## Outdoor2daCore (Nov 8, 2010)

A lot of good points here, hell when I asked my dr about eating lake trout she said, "oh, they are fine, what you really want to be careful about is large ocean predators like tuna swordfish, etc" yet have any of you even heard of advisories against them. Not FDA is crazy in my opinion, I think somewhat knowing the waters you fish out of and limiting large predators and using moderation is the key


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## o_mykiss (May 21, 2013)

Outdoor2daCore said:


> A lot of good points here, hell when I asked my dr about eating lake trout she said, "oh, they are fine, what you really want to be careful about is large ocean predators like tuna swordfish, etc" yet have any of you even heard of advisories against them. Not FDA is crazy in my opinion, I think somewhat knowing the waters you fish out of and limiting large predators and using moderation is the key


Yep... I have heard of plenty advisories. In fact there are a ton of advisories out there by many organizations and government agencies regarding ocean fish. The FDA and the EPA have one, for example.

http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/fishshellfish/outreach/advice_index.cfm


I eat more than the advisory for great lakes fish... but I try to not exceed it greatly. It's a cumulative effect over time. And I try to remove belly fat and brown fat whenever possible. I am also very very careful when involving kids and women of childbearing age, because those are the groups that can really really be negatively affected by PCBs/Mercury


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## out2fish (May 11, 2011)

Finding a Balance

"For example, lets say the 180 pound adult ate

16 ounces of fish during one meal. That is 2

MI Servings of fish for a person of that size.

If the fish is listed as 2, 4, or 12 MI Servings 

in the ESF Guide, theyre still within their

range. If the fish is listed as 1 meal per month 

or Limited, they might want to avoid eating

other meals of fish for a while to give their

body time to process the chemicals."

I suppose if I eat 1-2 MI servings of brown trout per year from Lake Michigan, then I would be done eating any other combination of fish until those chemicals get processed. Am I understanding this correctly?


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## 7mmsendero (Dec 2, 2010)

I have a lot of respect for the advisories, however where they make me wonder is with the age of the fish. I have a really hard time believing that a 15-18" walleyes are the same as the rest. Those fish are really young, there isn't much time for bioaccumulation. When you clean those young fish you can see the difference. 

The talk about reducing the size limit on walleyes in Saginaw Bay could be helpful too, but I'm not sure the advisory would reflect this. A 13" fish might only be 2 years old.


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