Eating Tailor From The Harbour

[Moro Mou]

Hello Raiders,

With plenty of great reports of tailor being caught at the moment does anyone know if there is any further updates on dioxin levels/species reports for the harbour? The latest i can find on tailor is 1 per month or 150g per month.

Given that fresh smoked tailor is one of my favourites i would be keen to know.

Cheers

Moro Mou

[Josh88]

I wouldnt imagine its that bad, when you see people keeping half a dozen bream to eat considering they feed near the bottom frequently and would be more exposed to dioxin crap than most other fish, then you have tailor who seem to spend most of their time feeding on whitebait on the surface then i reckon you'd be fine. I just don't keep tailor as im not a great fan of eating them.

Cheers

Josh

[Moro Mou]

Thanks Josh,

I caught a few on Sat and kept 4 for the smoker. Wife happy, neighbours happy and me happy. Very tasty.

[river_kid]

couldnt imagine them been that bad though i have seen stranger things

[andrew399]

I wouldnt imagine its that bad, when you see people keeping half a dozen bream to eat considering they feed near the bottom frequently and would be more exposed to dioxin crap than most other fish, then you have tailor who seem to spend most of their time feeding on whitebait on the surface then i reckon you'd be fine. I just don't keep tailor as im not a great fan of eating them.

Cheers

Josh

It would seem that where the fish feed does not actually have all that much to do with it, nor does the fact that they live on the sea bed or higher up in the water column.

The latest research i have found indicates 1x150g serving of bream a month, the same as tailor. With flathead however, it says that you are able to eat 12x150g serves amonth and they live on ocean floor in all the sediments and feed on pretty much the same stuff as bream. It says you can eat jsut as much kindfish, and you can even have 5,4, and 4 servings of crab, squid and prawn. So from those amounts you would think that the food chain is not so much the problem... Perhaps its where they spend there years as a jouvenile? Do Bream and tailor spend those formative years further up the river?

The site I got this info off is this one. It is a government run food authority.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand Risk Assessment report on seafood from Sydney Harbour, concluded that the health risk associated with consuming seafood from Sydney Harbour/Parramatta River is low for the average Australian consumer, with it being unlikely they would suffer any noticeable health effects even if the guidelines are exceeded.

Also, i am not bothered by this 'dioxin scare' and regularly eat fish from the harbour, as do most people. You have to remember that these dioxin levels have been known for a LONG time but it has never been a problem until the government lowered ther acceptable levels to amongst the lowest in the world. So it was safe for us to eat before, but then all of a sudden it wasnt any more....

Mate if i were you i would just enjoy the tailor and not worry about it!

Edited November 16, 2009 by dicko

[jlloyd]

The guidelines above have been developed based on someone eating considerable quantities of fish from the harbour (ie virtually daily). As most fishos don't do this (I'm thinking a weekly catch if lucky) I would not be concerned. I would not eat anything from homebush bay (fishing banned) and around Camellia as I know what is or has entered the river there such as dioxins, hexavalent chromium etc. Women who are pregnant shouldn't eat too much fish from the harbour (ie abide by the government regulations).

[tuffy]

I reckon the beer and smokes will probably kill me quicker than any harbour fish that I eat!!

Tuffy.

[Matt]

I reckon the beer and smokes will probably kill me quicker than any harbour fish that I eat!!

Tuffy.

Hit the nail on the head there Tuffy.

The dietery advise is an odd one when applied to a pelagic species like Tailor, who is to say that the school of fish you pull a few from didn't spend their juvenile lives in a pristine south coast waterway? They don't carry a birth certificate around (all though I haven't asked a Tailor lately for one....)

Eat away say I

Cheers

Windy

[jewiehaven]

I have no hesitations eating fish caught EAST of Gladesville and have been doing so for a few years.

Parra River is OK to eat from and I have eaten Taylor, Flatties, Bream, Whiting, Jewfish and Crabs all from the Gladesville area.

Maybe all the dioxins have made become such an obsessive and compulsive fisherman l

[daleyboy]

I went to a presentation at work last year (or maybe year before, i work for dept environment) which showed all the testing they did for the dioxins in Sydney Harbour

Heres one fact i learnt - Tailor and Mullet caught in balmoral had on avg 3-4 times higher dioxin levels than flathead caught in homebush bay ... go figure!!!

Cant recall exactly, but i think the flathead were borderline on the accepted levels ... the other two were 3-4 times over

Edited November 19, 2009 by daleyboy

[Scottiedon]

Play it safe and don't eat anything.

[tuffy]

Play it safe and don't eat anything.

Yep, stay with beer sandwiches and you can't go wrong - just go easy on the bread.

Tuffy

[Lucky]

Dioxins have been linked to deformities in newborn animals, one particular study in Florida showed significant deformities in alligators. So, if your not planning to have kids in the future, perhaps it's not a big issue, but if you are planning to have kids it could be a big deal.

[Trapper Tom]

Hey Dicko

Spot on!!!

They changed the acceptable levels.

What was safe was suddenly not and it let the govt get rid of the pro's.

Don't get me wrong here fishraiders, Dioxin is really evil stuff.

But what is safe and what is not still remains unknown.

As no real medical clusters associated with Dioxin poisoning occurred prior to the change one can only deduce it was a political decision and not one based on fact.

I still would not eat anything from gladesville to HB with good reason.

The bow pressure waves from the cats and other boats wash the mud shores from Ryde to HB and that is where the most of the contaminants are in the sediments. The sediments then continue downstream with the tide. And that is why they are getting elevated readings compared to the past.

As for Taylor I doubt that they are a risk equivalent to bream as they spend most of the life in and out of estuaries and up and down the coast and would generally accumulated less of the stuff.

Note Dioxins are not water soluble but fat soluble hence it is stored/accumulated permanently in a animals body.

Think Ciguatera poisoning and accumulation and its the same principle here.

Enjoy your taylor.

Cheers

Trapper Tom