Healthy Advice for Eating the Fish You Catch

New advice for the Adirondack Region, Mohawk River and more:

Check out the new Adirondack Regional Advice. DOH updated the regional advice for the Adirondacks which allows the whole family to eat some fish from all waters in the Adirondacks.
Advice was updated for the Mohawk River in both the Leatherstocking and Capital Region including carp, which everyone shouldn’t eat, between Lock E21 at New London to Cohoes Falls.
Updates for Lake Erie (Western Region): Everyone should not eat carp, but the whole family can add brown bullhead and rudd to their 4 meals per month.
Advice has changed for Lake Welch and the East Branch Reservoir in the Hudson Valley, Buffalo River/Harbor and Eighteenmile Creek in the Western Region, and Coldbrook Creek and Owasco Lake in the Finger Lakes Region.

Watch News 10 video featuring updated fish adviories: https://www.news10.com/news/ny-news/doh-issues-updated-fish-consumption-advisories/?msclkid=cd487779c24a11ec91b3ea1f395dcd3e

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Do You Fish?!

Fishing is a fun, relaxing, low impact sport that puts healthy food on your dinner table! It’s time to order fish advisory publications for the fishing season to ensure you are fishing in the highest quality waters and bringing home the safest fish possible.

Safe fishing waters:
www.health.ny.gov/fish/maps.htm

FDA brochure concerning mercury levels in supermarket fish:
https://www.fda.gov/food/Resourcesforyou/Consumers/ucm393070.htm

Processing, Preparing, and Presenting Fish:
https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/di...

The Wild Harvest Table started as a celebration of the culinary bounty represented by wild game and fish in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Cornell Cooperative Extension Nutrition Educator, Moira Tidball, from Seneca County started the website in January of 2009 as a resource for game and fish recipes, nutrition information, and preparation techniques:
https://www.wildharvesttable.com/

New York State Health Advice on Eating Fish You Catch:
https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/fish/health_advisories/

FREE Fish Advisory Materials from the NYS Department of Health can be ordered online:
https://www.health.ny.gov/forms/order_forms/fish_order_form.pdf

Or you can...

Mail the order form to:

NYS Department of Health
Outreach and Education Group, CEH
Empire State Plaza, Corning Tower, Room 1642
Albany, NY 12237

Fax the order form to (518) 402-7539

Email the order form to Ceheduc@health.ny.gov

Contact

Karen Roberts Mort
Association Resource Educator
kem18@cornell.edu
518-765-3552

Last updated May 24, 2022

Food & Nutrition

Resolve to Eat More Fish in 2022

Health Benefits of Fish

Low-fat, high quality protein
Filled with omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins such as D and B2 (riboflavin)
Rich in calcium and phosphorus. Great source of minerals.
The American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week as part of a healthy diet. Fish is packed with protein, vitamins and nutrients that can lower BP and help reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke.
Since fish are an important source of omega-3 fatty acids, eating them can keep our brain and heart healthy.
Our bodies do not produce omega-3 fatty acids, so we must get them in the food we eat.
Omega-3 fatty acids are especially high in fatty fish (greater than 10% fat) like salmon, trout, sardines, herring, canned mackerel, canned light tuna, and oysters.

Learn how to properly cook fish and try some healthy recipes: https://doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/Food/Fish/HealthBenefits/Recipes

The general cooking time is 10 minutes for each inch of thickness.
Serving size for fish: for an adult, one serving is 4 ounces; for children, a serving is 1 ounce at age 2 and increases with age to 4 ounces by age 11.

Upcoming Free Fishing Dates

Hudson River Fish Advisory Outreach Project

Do you fish or crab from the Hudson River?

We want to hear from you!

We are trying to learn more about where people like to fish, what they like to eat, and what people are catching from the Hudson River. This survey will take about 10 minutes to complete:

Hudson River Fish Survey

Where Can the Whole Family Eat the Fish?

(Click on image to enlarge)

Choose seafood low in contaminants and high in health benefits.Know which types of fish fish are lower in mercury in the grocery store and which ones to avoid (King mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, tilefish (Gulf of Mexico) and Bigeye tuna).
Know where to fish locally and which fish are best to keep to eat – see map for Albany County. There are many waters in Albany County which are safe for the whole family to eat up to two 4 ounce fish meals a week from, just not the Hudson River.
To reduce contaminants (like PCBs in fish caught in the Hudson River), remove the skin and visible fat before cooking.Grill, bake or broil the fish so that the fat drips off. Women younger than 50 years of age and children should not eat any fish caught in any part of the Hudson River.There are only 4 species of fish safe for men over the age of 15 and women over the age of 50 can eat up to 1 meal per month from the Mid-Hudson section of the river.Those include alewife, blueback herring, yellow perch and rock bass. The good news is that there are plenty of other spots in Albany County which have public access and are safe for the whole family to eat the fish.

Cultural importance – Fish is not only an important source of nutrition, the act of catching fish, preparing it and eating it is an important part of cultural and family heritage among certain populations.

Follow this link for ice fishing information (from NYS DEC): https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/7733.html

Cornell Cooperative Extension

Albany County