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in the Assabet Watershed | Back
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Safe to Eat?
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health
recently updated their Freshwater
Fish Consumption Advisory List (2004). Included in the
advisory are:
| Water Body |
Town |
Advisory Code* |
Hazard*** |
| A1 Impoundment |
Westborough |
P1 (all species),
P2 (LMB)** |
Mercury |
| Lake Boon |
Hudson, Stow |
P1 (LMB & BC),
P3 (LMB & BC) |
Mercury |
| Concord River |
Concord - Billerica |
P1 (all species),
P2 (LMB), P4 |
Mercury |
| Hocomonco Pond |
Westborough |
P6 |
PAHs |
| Nutting Lake |
Billerica |
P1 (all species),
P5 |
Mercury |
| Sudbury Reservoir
|
Marlboro, Southboro |
P1 (all species),
P2 (Bass) |
Mercury |
| Sudbury River |
Ashland to Concord |
P6 |
Mercury |
| Walden Pond |
Concord |
P1 (LMB & SMB),
P3 (LMB & SMB) |
Mercury |
| Warner’s Pond |
Concord |
P1 (LMB), P3 (LMB) |
Mercury |
*Advisory Code:
P1 (species): Children younger than 12 years or age,
pregnant women, women of childbearing age who may become pregnant,
and nursing mothers should not eat any of the affected fish
species (in parenthesis) from this water body.
P2 (species): The general public should not consume
any of the affected fish species (in parenthesis) from this
water body.
P3 (species): The general public should limit consumption
of affected fish species (in parenthesis) to two meals per
month.
P4: The general public should limit consumption of
non-affected fish from this water body to two meals per month.
P5: The general public should limit consumption of
all fish from this water body to two meals per month.
P6: The general public should not consume any fish
from this water body.
**Mass DPH Fish Codes
| AE American Eel |
CCS Creek Chubsucker
|
SMB Smallmouth
Bass |
| B Bluegill |
CP Chain Pickerel |
WC White Catfish
|
| BB Brown Bullhead |
FF Fallfish |
WP White Perch
|
| BC Black Crappie |
GRS Green Sunfish |
WS White Sucker
|
| BT Brown Trout |
LMB Largemouth
Bass |
YB Yellow Bullhead
|
| C Carp |
LNS Longnose Sucker |
YP Yellow Perch
|
| CB Calico Bass |
P Pumpkinseed |
|
| CC ChannelCatfish |
RT Rainbow Trout
|
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***Hazard Code
PCB = polychlorinated biphenyls
PAHs = polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
For more information on
mercury in fish check these webpages:
US
EPA & FDA's "Revised Consumer Advisory on Methylmercury
in Fish "
US
FDA "Seafood information resources"
1996 Assabet River Fish
Toxics Survey
In September 1996, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental
Protection (MA DEP) collected fish from the Assabet River
in Hudson, Maynard, and Concord and analyzed them for toxic
contaminants; specifically, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, lead,
selenium, PCBs and pesticides. While metals were detected
in all of the fish sampled and PCBs (PCB Arochlor 1254) was
detected in a few, only one fish, a single yellow bullhead,
exceeded the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's "trigger
level" for a toxic contaminant, in this case for mercury.
(The "trigger level" for mercury is 0.5 mg/Kg and the yellow
bullhead contained 0.64 mg/Kg mercury.) The Department did
not issue a fish consumption advisory because the fish represented
one data point from an individual fish sample. Click here
for the full report titled, Fish
Toxics Monitoring Public Request Surveys, 1997.
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