New advisories have been issued regarding mercury levels in three types of fish found in Arizona lakes.
You can still eat these fish, but the state is advising a weekly cap on how much–- 2.4 ounces or less per week for adults. That goes for largemouth bass in Apache Lake, striped bass in Lake Pleasant and flathead catfish in Bartlett Lake. Caroline Oppelman is a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, which is in charge of monitoring mercury levels in fish.
“Mercury is by far the most common pollutant in fish tissue across the United States,” she said. “The Arizona Deptartment of Environmental Quality has a number of fish-consumption advisories for mercury currently in effect state-wide.”
Oppelman says there are more than a dozen other advisories, and that all are based on a lifetime consumption of the fish.
Jason Jones, supervisor of ADEQ’s monitoring and assessment unit, explained the agency “takes into account the size of the fish, the amount of mercury in each species, the size and weight of the children and adults when eating the fish when determining whether a fish consumption advisory is issued.”
According to ADEQ, even when lakes have a mercury advisory, reactional activities like swimming and boating aren’t affected.
To see a full list of fish consumption advisories in Arizona, visit the state Game and Fish website.
