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Water: Fish Advisories

Fish Consumption Advisories - Technical Information

Interactive Technical Maps and Advanced Searches

This easy-to-use interactive mapping tool allows state and tribal fish advisory program managers to view information about fish advisories based on the geographic location of a waterbody, the species of the fish, the chemical contaminants identified in the advisory, and the portion of the consumer population for whom the advisory was issued. It also allows users to search the National Listing Fish Advisories (NLFA) database for fish tissue contaminant data. The technical advisories search is recommended for more advanced users.


Technical Advisory search map		          
Interactive Maps & Searches

Advanced searches:

Simple search of advisories by state and waterbody name:

 

Quick Start

A drop-down search form allows the user to search the technical advisory information and fish tissue contaminant data. Users can then choose to display the results in map format, table format, or as a downloadable spreadsheet or PDF report.

  1. Select a location. Select an EPA Region, a state, or the entire U.S.
  2. Select search options. Select one or more search criterion such as advisory type, fish species, pollutant, affected population, and year issued.
  3. Click search button

Tip: Filtered Search From - Search criteria are filtered as you make your choices and only options that have an advisory (for the technical advisory search) or tissue data (for the technical tissue search) are available in the dropdowns. As a result each selection itself is a quick search without having to do a full search. For example, select a state and a pollutant, and the drop down for Waterbody only displays waterbodies with an advisory for that pollutant.

  

 

Search from

View Search Results

Search results may be viewed in several ways.

  1. Within the search form itself using the filtered dropdown options.
  2. On the map using the map tab.
  3. In a table using the report tab.

View detailed information about a single advisory or tissue site by clicking on it on the map and then clicking on the "View detailed advisory/tissue information" link.

         

Details link

Getting Help

Help icon

The Help button (help_incon_sm symbol) is located above the upper right corner of the map or report. Click this button for the User Guide specific to the search page you are on.

View User Guides

Go to Technical Maps and Searches


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Newsletter

You will need Adobe Reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more.

The EPA's Fish Advisories Newsletter provides news and information about the science, communication, and health issues related to fish advisories. Each month it will include new information about recent newspaper, magazine, and journal articles of interest to the fish advisory community. Where possible we have included a direct link to the articles discussed; however, most publications require that you register in order to view archived articles, and a link cannot be established directly to the article in those cases.

  Fish forum  

Please send an email to the newsletter manager (fish_advisory@epa.gov) if you would like to announce an upcoming meeting, conference, or to submit an article relevant to fish consumption advisories.
 

National Fish Forum

The EPA sponsors the National Forum on Contaminants in Fish every 18-24 months to bring together interested stakeholders in public health and environmental professionals from states, tribes, and other groups to discuss the many issues related to contaminants in fish.

 
Fish forum 		 

National Guidance

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued the results of the Survey on the Awareness and Effectiveness of the Mississippi Delta Fish Consumption Advisory (PDF) (216 pp, 3.0MB), developed in cooperation with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. For more information, see our Fact Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 245K)

Guidance for Assessing Chemical Contaminant Data for Use In Fish Advisories to help state, local, regional, and tribal environmental health officials who are responsible for developing and managing fish consumption advisories.

Guidance for Conducting Fish and Wildlife Consumption Surveys (PDF) (2.3MB) This guidance document provides instructions for selecting a survey approach and designing a survey to obtain fish consumption rate information.

Estimated Per Capita Fish Consumption in the United States (PDF) (3.3MB) This report provides daily average per capita fish consumption estimates.

Recommended Study Design for a Survey to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Mississippi Delta Fish Advisories provides a survey instrument and recommended methodology for assessing the awareness and effectiveness of the Mississippi Delta Fish Consumption Advisory issued by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality in 2001.

Reports and Chemical Fact Sheets

  • Chemical-specific Fact Sheets provides information on PCBs, Toxaphene, Mercury and Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins.
  • Public Health Implications of Exposure to PCBs
    This report summarizes the health implications associated with exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), primarily through fish consumption.
  • Database: National Survey of Mercury Concentrations in Fish (1990-1995)
    Summary of total mercury concentrations in fish nationwide.
  • Database: Mercury and Selenium Levels in Fish at Selected Mercury Advisory Sites: EPA collected and analyzed fish during 2007-08 to assess levels of mercury at 95 randomly selected mercury advisory sites within the continental United States using a statistically based, regionally stratified design, where sites represented all major regions of the country. Methods established in EPA’s Guidance for Assessing Chemical Contaminant Data for Use in Fish Advisories were used to collect and analyze fish fillet tissue for total mercury. Site samples are comprised of three composites of five fish per composite. Total selenium was also measured and is included in the dataset. Final Data (Excel, 64K)
  • Summary of Responses to the 2010 National Survey of Fish Advisory Programs (PDF) (74 pp, 5.7MB); and the Questionnaire Response Database (Appendix B) (PDF) (345 pp, 11.9MB) provide results from a survey of state fish advisory program assessment methodologies, risk management approaches and risk communication procedures. Appendix A includes the survey questionnaire and Appendix B, the summary of each state's response.

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Comments on draft FDA risk and benefit assessment

In January 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 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]. The U.S. EPA provided the following comments (63 pp, 365K) to the FDA Federal Register Notice of January 21, 2009 (Vol 74, Number 12, pp 3615-3617).

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Contacts

Visit the contacts page to find links to Federal, state and tribal contacts and fish advisory programs.

Related Links

Mercury Home
This mercury site provides a broad range of information: actions by EPA and others, including international actions; effects on people and the environment; and how to protect you and your family.

Clean Air Mercury Rule
The EPA issued the Clean Air Mercury Rule to permanently cap and reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants for the first time ever. This rule makes the United States the first country in the world to regulate mercury emissions from utilities.

Fish Waste Management Measure for Marine and Boat Operation
Chapter and section from the Manual: Guidance Specifying Management Measures for Sources of Nonpoint Pollution in Coastal Waters.

National Lake Fish Tissue Study
The EPA in coordination with other partners is conducting a series of freshwater fish contamination studies. These studies are providing national representative data on concentrations of large numbers of chemicals in fish tissue including contaminants of concern.

Anglers and Aquatic Resource Protection
The EPA wants to provide anglers with information on the condition of our nation's waters, activities that anglers and their families can undertake to improve the health of our valued fisheries, and information on EPA's role in protecting recreational fisheries.

All of these links exit the EPA  Exit EPA Disclaimer

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