Fish Advisories

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Fish Advisories

BP Oil Spill Alert

Oil from the BP spill has raised major concerns and has the potential for significant impacts on the water quality in Gulf coastal areas. Before fishing, check the following links for the current conditions, restrictions and closures.

All of these links exit EPA

Federal Waters

NOAA Fisheries Service

State Waters

Alabama:
Alabama Department of Health
Florida:
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response
Louisiana:
Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries: Oil Spill Response
Mississippi:
Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality: Transocean Drilling Incident Response 2010
Texas:
No oil spill-related closure or advisory information has been posted.

EPA information on the oil spill: http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/

Fish are a lean, low-calorie source of protein. However, some fish may contain chemicals that could pose health risks. When contaminant levels are unsafe, consumption advisories may recommend that people limit or avoid eating certain species of fish caught in certain places. More information….

The 2009 Fish Forum was held November 2-5, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. Links to presentations from this year's forum are now posted.

U.S. EPA is providing the following comments in response (PDF) (63 pp, 365K; About PDF) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Federal Register Notice of January 21, 2009 (Vol 74, Number 12, pp 3615-3617). This notice announced availability of two draft documents: 1) "Report of Quantitative Risk and Benefit Assessment of Commercial Fish Consumption, Focusing on Fetal Neurodevelopmental Effects (Measured by Verbal Development in Children) and on Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke in the General Population" [Risk / Benefit Report]; and 2) "Summary of Published Research on the Beneficial Effects of Fish Consumption and Omega-3 Fatty Acids for Certain Neurodevelopmental and Cardiovascular Endpoints" [Omega-3 Report].