Healthy Advice for Eating the Fish You Catch
Freshwater Fishing Regulations - NYSDEC
Albany County specific advice: https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/fish/health_advisories/by_county.htm?county=albany
In the Hudson River: The sensitive population - Women of childbearing age (less than 50 years old and children less than 15) should not eat any fish from the Hudson River in the Albany region. Men over 15 years old can eat 1 meal per month of the following four fish: alewife, blueback herring, rock bass and yellow perch. No one should eat striped bass from this section of the river (from the Troy dam to the Rip Van Winkle Bridge). This advice is due to high levels of PCBs in the fish.
The Mohawk River/Erie Canal between Five Mile dam (downstream of Little Falls) and Cohoes Falls is now classified as a purple water on the fish advisory maps, so the advice has changed slightly. The good news is that men over the age of 15 can have up to 4 meals a month, and the sensitive population can have up to 1 meal/month of the following fish: yellow perch, white sucker, rainbow trout, pumpkinseed/sunfish, brown trout and brook trout, due to PCBs. No one should eat carp due to presence of PCBs. All other fish – follow the statewide advice. https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/fish/health_advisories/by_county.htm?county=albany#state
For Patroon Creek, men over 15 can have white sucker fish up to 4 meals a month and the sensitive population can have it up to once a month due to mercury levels. For Thompson’s Lake, men over 15 can have yellow perch up to 4 meals/month and the sensitive population can have it up to once a month due to mercury levels. For all other fish in these 2 waterbodies – follow the statewide advice.
For all other waters in Albany County – follow the statewide advice, which is a chart with 4 categories of advice, depending on the fish. It is divided into best choice, good choice, eat less and don’t eat types of fish (please see chart).
Please call 518-765-3552 or e-mail (kem18@cornell.edu) Kare Roberts Mort with any questions.
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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
office 518-765-3552 | cell 518-618-5595
Last updated March 7, 2025
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:
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