Safe To Eat Fish Caught in Pittsburgh's Rivers? (Deer Lake, Penn: places, rain)

[terraaus]

I have a friend coming to visit who likes to fish. The rivers look pretty muddy to me. Are the fish here safe to eat? I know there were some concerns a few years ago. Are there better places to fish nearby?

[Hopes]

Deer Lakes Park. North Park. Moraine State Park.

I'd fish the streams before the river, but mostly because I don't enjoy standing by the river.

If you want to fish a river, I'd fish the Allegheny instead of the Mon or the Ohio, but fish further north on the river AWAY from the Point.

The State recommends that people limit their eating to one fish per week from Pennsylvania's waters.

That's due to mercury, but there is a limit to the amount of fish we should be eating from anywhere due to mercury so I wouldn't NOT eat fish. I'd just make sure I ate within the advised limits, like I do with seafood too.

Here's an article that explains the mercury in Pennsylvania's waters:

Team 4 Investigation: River Fish Tested - Pittsburgh News Story - WTAE Pittsburgh (http://www.wtae.com/news/4766842/detail.html - broken link)

Here's a link to the Department of Environmental Protection's Fish Consumptions Advisories:

PFBC 2011 Press Release - 2011 Fish Consumption Advisories

That's 2011. You might want to poke around the website to see if there's a more current advisory.

[Love2Golf09]

Of course its safe. I know a lot of people that fish in the rivers. It's fairly common. The city hosted the Bassmaster Classic a few years ago. Apparently, some people were less than thrilled with the size of the fish, but certainly safety wasn't an issue.