No More Eating Stripers

[Tony Buzolich]

A few days ago I recieved an E from the Calif. Dept of Health office asking if I'd like to attend a meeting to review the findings they came up with before being made public. This was to discuss the findings and now the publication of a health advisory to the general public. Well, in this mornings Appeal-Democrat the first article came out stating that black bass (large-small-or spotted) and catfish should only be eaten once per month, and striped bass NOT AT ALL. No mention was made of trout or salmon.

It appears miners used mercury a lot to aide in gathering gold. The mercury they used got dumped into the waste water which eventually converts to methlmercury which fish can ingest becoming thousands of times higher than that which is in the surrounding water.

In talking with the folks at the health department it was mentioned that they expect all tributaries (American, Mokelume,etc) to have similar findings wherever mining took place.

I remember fishing with my dad as a kid around the old powerhouse in Folsom and picking mercury (quicksilver) up in the dirt and playing with it. It seems quicksilver was used to collect fine gold powder from the ore and later burned off leaving the concentrated gold.

Well, there go the fish tacos I've been enjoying from those nice white fillets. Maybe the bay fish won't have as high a mercury level and we can still keep a few.
TONY

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I guess the bigger/older they are, they have more bad stuff in them in our rivers and the Delta.

I think that in some of the CA reservoirs you can find clean land-locked Stripers that are good for eating.

[Darian]

Actually, I wouldn't recommend eating to many fish of any type from foothill reservoirs or rivers/streams; given the level of gold mining activities there. mercury is still evident in the gravels of Lake Natoma, as demo'd by geologists thru panning about 3 years ago. Altho the American was plundered extensively, the Allegheny District was/is the most heavily mined area in this state (hard-rock or placer). Therefore, it stands to reason that even more mercury resides in deposits and the food chain in that area. Guess which river runs right thru it. Yep!!! The Yuba River....

Almost every river or stream whoe headwaters pour into rivers/streams ending in this valley are polluted with mercury deposits. :( :( :( Also, the Trinity and Klamath rivers/and their tributaries were/are subject to the same deposits.

Do I eat fish :?: :?: Sometimes.... I like anadromous and saltwater Fish but all of these have methylmercury in their systems, too. Guess I'll have to settle for being able to tell ambient air/water temps without using a thermometer. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[JerryInLodi]

I am certainly not a geologist but I understand that mercury as a mineral is also fairly common in the granite of the Sierras.

If the Department of Environmental Health and DFG get together and actually consider these findings, what will it result in as far as regulations?

No fishing for stripers?
Catch and release only?
A reduction in size limits since smaller fish have less toxins?

Probably nothing! It's been known that cigarettes kill for 45 years and they're still sold and taxed.

Uh Oh, maybe when people catch and keep stripers they'll have to pay a tax!

If possession of a striped bass was actually banned, I imagine that a lot of people would be fishing for CARP in the delta using nine weights and chartreuse clousers, and releasing all the stripers they catch as incidental catch.

[lee s.]

Oh well. I'm gonna die of something anyway.....might as well know what it is. :wink:
....lee s.

[HC]

Before you sign up to die do a Google seach the effect of methylmercury on humans. Suffering with the illness a while could cause one to think of death as a comfort. I'd rather skip the madhatter bit and take a pass on fish at the dinner table. Now where did I leave the car keys? just my $0.02 worth. Harley

[HC]

Tony. I agree it was a waste to kill her, no need to,really. There are a lot of small stripers in the lake, maybe too many? It could be the reason for the 10 fish limit. The lake was drained and poisoned when the "new" dam was built in the midsixties. I rember fishing the opening, tons of foot long black bass. It was a very nice LMB fishery for many years until stripers were introduced. Since then it has become a so-so striper fishery and a water sports hangout. There seems to be a lot of bait and fish movement in the lake. The last time out there there were some large fish moving on the bait on top. I mean they were moving water, shoulder wakes and blow-ups and such. make me wonder.