Dioxins

[smuz]

99.9% of my fishing is catch and release but being new to Sydney and having read a lot about polluted waterways i was curious that on the off chance i was to keep a feed, where would it be from? im land-based and guess some of the beaches would be fine but I've read that even east of harbour bridge is toxic,how far east? what about botany( i know cooks is suicide), middle harbour or hawksbury? any info on prolonging my life would be greatly appreciated.

[wannabefisho]

Its a personal choice if you really want to bypass the dioxins completely you would be best off going up the Hawkesbury (as the Georges River also has the toxins further upstream were the industrial areas are), Botany bay should be fine, inside the main harbour is also fine, Broken Bay and Brisbane Waters are also fine.

It also depends on how far you are willing to travel to get a feed, I often travel up to the Central Coast and catch Salmon, Taylor, Bream, Whiting, Flatties, Trevally and the occasional Jewie which I keep most for a feed and I dont mind travelling that far as Ive got family up that way so I can do a double whammy and visit the relo's and then go dangle a line on my way home, its nice up there and very peaceful I fish some beaches and I wouldnt see a single fisherman on the beach for weeks on end, except for the Taylor are running then its wall-to-wall fisho's all the way along the beach.

Locally here in Sydney I fish mostly in Lane Cove River and Parramatta River and I will keep Bream and Flatties from the rivers no problems, my Father in Law has been eating fish from Parra/LCR for 40 years+ and he doesnt have any elevated levels of doixins in his blood stream and he gets checked regularly because of his age and he's not unfit or anything like that- his only flaw is he plays golf... just not my cuppa tea... lol

Hope this helps

Anthony

[A.dawg]

ya cant beat the hacking

[dani!o]

mate ill just add a couple more points

1) migratory fish - fish that move around a lot, say sambo or choppa, i would say are a bit better... im just guessing, but i think because they move around a lot they wouldn't stay in 1 polluted area for a very long time...

2) fish age - a fish that is quite old, like that 20 year old, 150kg jewie i didnt catch, are more likely to have higher dioxin levels just because of the time they have been around

That's why for fish like sambo, choppa, flattie and bream, i almost always keep them... the only spot i explicitly dont fish is rhodes / homebush... rhodes used to have some serious pollution, and the mullet there have probably been living in that same patch of water for quite some time... not really my thing... but, if i caught a jewie there, i'd probably take it because i'd guess the jewie didnt spend its whole life there, and may in fact have been to other non polluted areas...

dont know if im right or not, just guessing... dioxins or not, live every day to the fullest (and by fullest, i mean fish at every opportunity for as long and as hard as possible) because when its time, well, its time.

[smuz]

thanks to all for the replies. Being new i was unaware of how bad or not it was. The rec fisher signs i noticed sounded pretty full on.

[wannabefisho]

thanks to all for the replies. Being new i was unaware of how bad or not it was. The rec fisher signs i noticed sounded pretty full on.

They were put up 10 years ago mate but everything in moderation and be sensible about your catches and what you eat no matter where it is from...

since many of those factories have closed down and strict policing of industrial waste is in place the risks are considerably less then they were 10 or more years ago.

The problem mainly is that the ferries and river cats stir up a lot of the sediment that contains the dioxins, which baitfish and bottom feeders tend to eat more regularly... so there is an "increased" risk of eating a fish that has dioxins in their blood system, but in reality you would never tell if it did or it didnt- thats where the "dietary guides and moderation" come into play

... All about being sensible... Also you can tell if a Bream has been up in the rivers for a long time by the colour of them, most of the ones I get around Gladesville and lane Cove are bright silver and not been in the system too long- Im confident I am taking the best care I can when I eat from the rivers.

Good luck mate, am sure you will find a few good spots to snare a feed when you need to... and worst case scenario is you will need to travel or go to the local fish shop for a fish-fix.

Anthony

[Anti-Carp]

They were put up 10 years ago mate but everything in moderation and be sensible about your catches and what you eat no matter where it is from...

since many of those factories have closed down and strict policing of industrial waste is in place the risks are considerably less then they were 10 or more years ago.

The problem mainly is that the ferries and river cats stir up a lot of the sediment that contains the dioxins, which baitfish and bottom feeders tend to eat more regularly... so there is an "increased" risk of eating a fish that has dioxins in their blood system, but in reality you would never tell if it did or it didnt- thats where the "dietary guides and moderation" come into play

... All about being sensible... Also you can tell if a Bream has been up in the rivers for a long time by the colour of them, most of the ones I get around Gladesville and lane Cove are bright silver and not been in the system too long- Im confident I am taking the best care I can when I eat from the rivers.

Good luck mate, am sure you will find a few good spots to snare a feed when you need to... and worst case scenario is you will need to travel or go to the local fish shop for a fish-fix.

Anthony

Dioxins won't make you sick over one or two meals but it will build up over time and will increase your risk of getting cancer.

The argument that fish swim has been taken into account by NSW Food Authority hence the recommendation to limit the consumption of fish east of the harbor bridge and not to eat any fish west of the harbor. It would be irresponsible with out understanding the science behind these recommendation to ignore these warnings.

I don't believe you can say that the coloration of bream is a safe guide to indicate how long a fish has been in the system. I would be more inclined to believe that the darker fish you catch would be black bream and the more silver fish would be yellow fin bream. I do occasionally catch yellow fin bream from time to time in fresh water while fishing for bass in places where you'd think how'd they get there and I can tell you these fish are no different to bream caught off the beach.

[Basil D]

ya cant beat the hacking

hear hear

[hookmeup]

99.9% of my fishing is catch and release but being new to Sydney and having read a lot about polluted waterways i was curious that on the off chance i was to keep a feed, where would it be from? im land-based and guess some of the beaches would be fine but I've read that even east of harbour bridge is toxic,how far east? what about botany( i know cooks is suicide), middle harbour or hawksbury? any info on prolonging my life would be greatly appreciated.

What are peoples views on eating fish (mainly bream) which are caught in Canada Bay ? safe to eat occasionally ?

[slam354]

I personally dont pay too much attention to the dioxin recommendations issued by the health authorities.The guidelines and suggested intakes of fish have been reviewed and have been decreased by the world health organisation as the new standard worldwide.In other words prior to these changes the dioxin levels in fish caught in Sydney Harbour were within acceptable levels for many years and prawns and fish were being sold to the fish markets.

All of a sudden the fish were unsafe for consumption.The fish still have the same level of dioxins as before only the limits have changed.I have been eating fish out of the harbour for nearly 40 years and my father who is 85 has been eating fish out of the harbour for over 50 years and he is very healthy.I dont drink and I dont smoke and one would think that if someone did any of these activities in excess they would have much more chance of getting cancer.

Cheers Steve

[customcasting]

Dioxins levels in our water ways spike after sever bush fires ,areas that have run of from the fires will be higher than arres that dont ,wind will carry the ash along way ,high levels of ash = high aeras of dioxins in junivile fish .

[smuz]

i love fishing for mulloway and i know that they move around but i also know that they are very likely to return to the same holes during the day, obviously spending great deals of their lives in a certain vicinity. In adelaide i would fish for them in west lakes and the port river but these fish would always go back, again everyone had their opinion on whether it was safe or not and i will probably keep the same practice with harbour jew. Im not so familiar with the habits of harbour kingfish yet though, what are peoples opinion on taking them? Do they move in and out of the harbours reguarly or is this an old wives tale?

Thanks again though everyone, this is great info for a landbased fisho.

[wannabefisho]

Kingies are always on the move, and they favour reefy areas and tight structure- I know they are fairly migratory as even the offshore fisho's who fish every day can find them @ one spot then go back the next day to same spot and they arent there (for whatever reason...)- one of my mates caught an 82cm model from pretty far up the Parra River late one night while fishing for jew and bream, it took his bream rod and took nearly 30minutes to land on 10lb mono.

IN winter though the Kingies are pretty scarce but there are still some great models to be had if you put in the effort and get in early to most spots, but winter time usually slows down they thin out a lot and arent as common a catch as they are in summer.

I dont fish regularly for them but I do read other reports from other anglers and know quite a few lads who go far offshore to 12mile and out as far as browns mountain for them- they say exactly that they can be there one day and gone the next- where they go "who knows"...

Tight lines

Anthony

[Basil D]

I have caught and eaten fish from the harbour all my life, but when I hear of dioxin levels are dangerouse it threw me off a little, I still fish out of the harbour but prefer the Hacking