# Mercury found in fish at Flaming Gorge



## fstop (Sep 25, 2007)

KSL Outdoors has learned of elevated mercury levels in fish at Flaming Gorge.
According to recent sampling conducted by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, there are some species of fish with mercury levels high enough to warrant consumption guidelines. In Flaming Gorge reservoir, large lake trout, large smallmouth bass and larger burbot have elevated levels of mercury. Large burbot, those thirty inches and above tested the highest in elevated mercury levels. Mercury levels are usually found the highest in fish that feed on other fish and are usually the highest in bigger, older fish. 
In the coming weeks, the Wyoming Department of Health and the Wyoming Game and Fish will release an advisory that deals with consumption of fish for those caught in Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The guidelines they’ll recommend are; pregnant women, nursing mothers, women of child bearing age and kids under 15 should limit their consumption of burbot under 25 inches to 4 meals per month. Women and children should avoid eating burbot from Flaming Gorge that are larger than 30 inches. 
The advisory will also urge people to balance the health benefits of eating fish. As fish are high in protein and other nutrients, low in fat, and have omega-3 fatty acids needed for healthy heart and brain development.
We’ll have more on KSL Outdoors, this Saturday on not only the mercury issues with the fish at the gorge, but we’ll also talk to biologists about their recent trend netting survey on burbot. In some parts of the reservoir, biologists are seeing as much as a 60% increase! We’ll also have some information on this years Burbot Bash. It looks like there will be 20-25 burbot tagged this year. Three of the fish will be worth cash prizes. One fish is going to be worth $10,000.00, another worth $2,500.00 and one worth $1,000.00. They also plan on having cash prizes for the most, biggest and most caught. The Burbot Bash is scheduled to take place Feb 1st-3rd.
I wanted to get this information out as soon as we could verify the information we’d received. 
Adam Eakle


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Depressing news. I fully planning on attending the burbot bash this year for the first time but this news has completely turned me off to the idea. 


-DallanC


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## fstop (Sep 25, 2007)

One thing I wanted to add to this is that. If you are not pregnant, a nursing mother, a women of child bearing age or a child under 15, you can still eat burbot. But you'll want to limit your intake, especially those larger fish to one meal per month. Hope this helps Dallan...Adam


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## Ton_Def (Dec 23, 2008)

Thanks Adam! Good to know! 

But....

I'll still eat 'em!! :EAT:


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## HunterGeek (Sep 13, 2007)

When I was a kid in one of my junior high science classes, I remember the teacher dropping a mercury barometer on his desk. Little beads of mercury flew off his desk and onto the floor in every direction. All the kids in the class were searching for the weird little balls of liquid metal, picking them up and helping to collect it all back into a jar.

If that happened today, they'd likely shut down the school, cordon off the surrounding blocks, then call in a special team of hazmat-suited engineers from Washington to decontaminate the site prior to leveling the school and deeming the whole area unfit for human habitation.

Mercury poisoning is serious stuff, but I don't remember any of the kids in my class getting sick or having any long or shorterm effects. Personally, I think there's a common sense middle ground in all this. It was probably foolish to enlist students in cleaning up liquid mercury off the science classroom floor, but it also seems a bit foolish to get too alarmed by microscopic pinprick amounts of mercury compounds found in a few fish.

I'd much rather feed my kids freshly caught burbot from Flaming Gorge than the fat filled, sodium-laced and chemically preserved food-like substances available for sale at McDonalds and 7-11.


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## FISHAMANIAC (Dec 1, 2012)

Well in my opinion it really sucks that this supposedly new news is just being published !! F&G have known for more than a minute about the mercury levels just failed to release it in a timely manner. I heard of this over 3 months ago those who fish them knew it was just a matter of time Ling are considered an Apex predator in the Gorge. I've caught and ate several hundred over the last 5yrs with no obvious repercussions that I can see with my 3 eyes _(O)_ lol!! I will continue to fish for them but will use my due diligence and avoid eating anything over 20 ins and in moderate amounts.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Not good. A guy's gotta be careful what he eats.

FYI, here's the Utah fish advisories as of Oct 25, 2012:
http://fishadvisories.utah.gov/


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