Can I eat fish in Middle Harbour?

[Nick Blackman]

Hey, I was wondering if I could eat the fish I catch in Middle harbour, Sydney, around the Sugarloaf Bay area. I am not too sure if the area is polluted or not and If there are other fishing spots close by that are less polluted.

[XD351]

All of Sydney is polluted- some areas more than others . North harbour is ok .

[sashkello]

Middle Harbour is less polluted than east of Harbour Bridge, by almost any measure (see report here). Given that it is assumed to be safe to consume fish from the Harbour, there is no reason to think Middle Harbour is somehow not safe. Bream and tailor are two standout species in terms of dioxin retention, plus squid is not too far off. Vast majority of others are safe to eat in quite large quantities. I mean, are you planning on eating a kilo of flathead or kingies every week? If you're only going to eat a few helpings a month, then it's hard to break the "unsafe" levels. It's not my words, it's government's advice. 

[Nick Blackman]

I was also wondering if this is the same for crabs as I do crab pots too

[slothparade]

1 hour ago, Nick Blackman said:

I was also wondering if this is the same for crabs as I do crab pots too

I wouldn't be eating crabs or crustations from the harbour as they are going through all the polluted sludge on the bottom 

[Robbo from Sydney]

15 hours ago, sashkello said:

Middle Harbour is less polluted than east of Harbour Bridge, by almost any measure (see report here). Given that it is assumed to be safe to consume fish from the Harbour, there is no reason to think Middle Harbour is somehow not safe. Bream and tailor are two standout species in terms of dioxin retention, plus squid is not too far off. Vast majority of others are safe to eat in quite large quantities. I mean, are you planning on eating a kilo of flathead or kingies every week? If you're only going to eat a few helpings a month, then it's hard to break the "unsafe" levels. It's not my words, it's government's advice. 

I agree completely with you on this.  I fish in Middle Harbour quite regularly and eat the fish I catch - especially the flathead and flounder. I still only have one head......

[sashkello]

I must say that I did read quite a bit on the topic and the whole thing is highly overblown. The daily intake recommendation is extremely conservative, and barring outliers would be safe to eat even for young children and pregnant women (young children would probably not eat adult-sized portion anyway). That's the whole point of government recommendations - it's to be doubly sure nothing bad happens. I quote CSIRO: "It is highly unlikely that the occasional eating of prawns or fish containing the level of dioxins found in the recent study from the Parramatta River and Sydney Harbour would have any adverse effect on health." And regarding cancer & development risk: "These effects have occurred at dioxin levels ... 100 to 1000 times higher than the levels found in prawns in Parramatta River." It's from 2005 as well when pollution was worse than it is now. 

People imagine that if you eat some fish from Homebush Bay you'll start vomiting blood next day and die from organ failure if you repeat the experience. But the truth is that it's more like you'll have a few % higher risk of developing cancer in next 20 years if you eat fish from there every week all this time. 

Yes, follow the recommendations and your risk is virtually zero. If you go over them a bit every now and then, you'll be fine, your risk is still pretty much zero, but don't do it constantly, just to keep safe, and don't feed your kids prawns from Homebush Bay. It's not worse than eating at Maccas every week, which will increase your chance of dying early by a lot more, but no one freaks out when you go out for a big mac. There are many MANY things way worse for your health in the world than eating some fish, which has a benefit of being an overall healthy food choice.

[Nick Blackman]

14 hours ago, slothparade said:

I wouldn't be eating crabs or crustations from the harbour as they are going through all the polluted sludge on the bottom 

Thanks, I'll stick to taking pics and throwing them back

[Bennyg78]

6 hours ago, sashkello said:

I must say that I did read quite a bit on the topic and the whole thing is highly overblown. The daily intake recommendation is extremely conservative, and barring outliers would be safe to eat even for young children and pregnant women (young children would probably not eat adult-sized portion anyway). That's the whole point of government recommendations - it's to be doubly sure nothing bad happens. I quote CSIRO: "It is highly unlikely that the occasional eating of prawns or fish containing the level of dioxins found in the recent study from the Parramatta River and Sydney Harbour would have any adverse effect on health." And regarding cancer & development risk: "These effects have occurred at dioxin levels ... 100 to 1000 times higher than the levels found in prawns in Parramatta River." It's from 2005 as well when pollution was worse than it is now. 

People imagine that if you eat some fish from Homebush Bay you'll start vomiting blood next day and die from organ failure if you repeat the experience. But the truth is that it's more like you'll have a few % higher risk of developing cancer in next 20 years if you eat fish from there every week all this time. 

Yes, follow the recommendations and your risk is virtually zero. If you go over them a bit every now and then, you'll be fine, your risk is still pretty much zero, but don't do it constantly, just to keep safe, and don't feed your kids prawns from Homebush Bay. It's not worse than eating at Maccas every week, which will increase your chance of dying early by a lot more, but no one freaks out when you go out for a big mac. There are many MANY things way worse for your health in the world than eating some fish, which has a benefit of being an overall healthy food choice.

Think Ill stick to the experts word on it at this point until more literature comes out

Edited May 15 by Bennyg78

[sashkello]

38 minutes ago, Bennyg78 said:

Think Ill stick to the experts word on it at this point until more literature comes out

Well, all I said above is quoted exactly from expert advice... According to experts, eating fish from Middle Harbour is quite safe. 

[Steve0]

 It's not just Dioxin. Some don't seem to care what ends up in the harbour. https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/researchpapers/Pages/pollution-in-sydney-harbour-sewage-toxic-chemica.aspx Look for the link to the PDF to read full details. 

The Harbour Bridge is not a barrier, but is it is likely not to be high risk. It gets down to personal choice.

[leonardgid]

On 5/14/2024 at 8:01 PM, Nick Blackman said:

I was also wondering if this is the same for crabs as I do crab pots too

crabs have higher levels  of dioxins  then lets say leather jackets,  there is a quide  that tells you how many meals etc you can eat  per month if you do a bit of a search for it on the internet