Eating fish from the parra

[Aussie_fisher]

Just curious, how many of you would actually eat fish from the parramatta river? Any where above Gladesville I definitely wouldn’t eat anything out of but maybe around iron cove or Balmain I wouldn’t mind eating a flatty or very occasionally a bream. I know a lot of people eat everything legal they catch east of the harbour bridge and then as soon as they get on the other side an invisible border appears and they don’t even touch the fish. but it’s not like fish won’t move around a few kilometres.

https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/system/files/media/documents/2022/homebush-bay-dioxin-project-report-2017-03.pdf

According to this study the bream from Homebush bay and silver water have a lot of dioxins which obviously makes sense but bream from the lower parramatta river aren’t terribly above the recommended limit (6pg TEQ/g), so I’d assume a flatty or something from these areas would probably be within the limit. Mullet are a different story. Read some posts on this site from a few years ago and there were mixed opinions. Any thoughts ?

 

[Steve0]

Official advice - https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/recreational/fishing-skills/fishing-in-sydney-harbour .   

I'm not keen on eating a lot of fish caught around cities, at all. People don't seem to care what they toss into waterways. 

[Mike Sydney]

My take on it is that they have elevated levels of dioxins , higher than many food but almost all dairy has dioxins too so as long it’s only very occasionally why not. One every couple months probably won’t hurt (not a doctor…!) .

I’ve eaten flathead from Balmain, but wouldn’t from iron cove as I read that’s particularly polluted too. 
I think it’s frequency that’s the danger as evident from the recommendations of eating east of the bridge. 

[XD351]

Ok , there isn’t a barricade under the harbour bridge so the fish can and do move around all through the harbour and its tributaries. I wouldn’t eat a crab or a prawn from anywhere in Sydney harbour- actually expand that to anywhere within 100km of Sydney!  My advice is to minimise what you eat out of anywhere in Sydney harbour . Fish that feed on things like oysters , mussels or marine worms probably have higher levels of dioxins because their food source is either a  filter feeder or ingests the sludge in the bottom of the system as they feed . I know plenty of people who eat fish out of the parra river and have no problems , I grew up eating fish and prawns out of there and I am fine .

[Burger]

As a fisherman with a science background having worked as an analyst at CSIRO as part of a heavy metals in fresh water study, the studies of the Dioxin contamination were of interest to me.

Many years ago I found and had a look at the papers on which recommendations were based and to me the numbers of samples and the range of results were only borderline statistically valid. The sample sizes of fishes tested were small and the result range varied greatly for each type of fish.

Further, their only survey seemed to be a one off event in that year (I think 2004?) rather than a regular sample program over the course of a year or years which may have better included fishes movements.

I think I recall another study in maybe 2017 that was done that gave similar results to 2004 for 20 fish of 20 species….. again think it was a single event study.

Do I eat fish from West of the bridge, yes I do. However I’m primarily a Luderick fisherman and they’re mainly vego’s as well as being a species that migrate in and out of estuaries for spawning.

Would I eat bream or flatties from further upstream, possibly not.

In my mind the ‘Harbour Bridge’ demarcation point was used cos it’s a bloody obvious spot, rather than for any science based reason.

Anyway, that’s just my 2c worth everyone needs to make their own decisions on whether they eat fish from Sydney Harbour.

Edited April 20 by Burger

[Aussie_fisher]

1 hour ago, Burger said:

As a fisherman with a science background having worked as an analyst at CSIRO as part of a heavy metals in fresh water study, the studies of the Dioxin contamination were of interest to me.

Many years ago I found and had a look at the papers on which recommendations were based and to me the numbers of samples and the range of results were only borderline statistically valid. The sample sizes of fishes tested were small and the result range varied greatly for each type of fish.

Further, their only survey seemed to be a one off event in that year (I think 2004?) rather than a regular sample program over the course of a year or years which may have better included fishes movements.

I think I recall another study in maybe 2017 that was done that gave similar results to 2004 for 20 fish of 20 species….. again think it was a single event study.

Do I eat fish from West of the bridge, yes I do. However I’m primarily a Luderick fisherman and they’re mainly vego’s as well as being a species that migrate in and out of estuaries for spawning.

Would I eat bream or flatties from further upstream, possibly not.

In my mind the ‘Harbour Bridge’ demarcation point was used cos it’s a bloody obvious spot, rather than for any science based reason.

Anyway, that’s just my 2c worth everyone needs to make their own decisions on whether they eat fish from Sydney Harbour.

they don’t cross because they see the real estate prices on the east side of the bridge 😂