Buffalo Boy's Blog
Giving You More Than Just My Two Cents
Can't Eat The Fish
How sad is it that we have polluted the greatest mass of readily available fresh water to the point where you literally can't eat anything in it. Most species are limited to eating one a month and still others, you can't eat any due to pollution by humans.
PCBs are the main culprit around here. They are polychlorinated biphenyls. They were banned in the 70s but they don't go away and build up in the fat of the fish over time.
Dioxins also play a role around here especially the stuff that has leaked from the Love Canal and the S dump which is actually bigger than the Love Canal. Dioxins are the same but come from burning smoke of motors and ash/soot and trash burning. Gee can't think of anywhere we would burn trash around here.....(two big piles of garbage on either end of the Grand Island Bridges ring a bell?).
Its sad. The largest mass of fresh water and its essentially no better off today than it was in the 70's. From foreign species that have invaded them due to our lax laws on shipping to the chemicals we dump into them. I found this on the WGRZ Channel 2 website if you want to investigate further.
I try to go out fishing a few times a summer and I have been out twice so far this year. I love going but it sucks when you catch something and know that you can't eat it even if it was a keeper.
Look at the lakes tributaries and where the major cities and farming regions are located and where the water sheds are located. (Buff is not considered a major lake city any longer, sorry reality). You also need to to look at the air pollution concentration maps. There is a big red blob over much of the lakes. What goes up must come down and does into the lakes and onto the soil into ground water which makes it into the lakes. The water quality has and continues to improve, which is why sport fishing is making a come back. Yes sport, not commercial, which how we want to keep it. There are enough farm raised fish that eating fish from the lakes is no longer needed. One of the worst lakes is lake Michigan due to the concentration of paper mills in th NW
The water quality continues to improve? There is a dead spot in Lake Erie again that is expanding, There hasnt been a dead spot in lake erie since the 70's when the lake was literally on fire.
Whaere do you see data on a "dead Spot"
http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/greatlakes/32EA0657-D124-4FF9-B155-2E1B5F7540BE/GreatLakes_Book_ENGLISH.pdf
A comprehensive report.While no where near what they should be things are improving and continue to improve. And yes you can eat the fish (not from ontario) in greater amounts than the past. There are no "dead spots" in Lake erie. Again, stop blindly following the spin.