Safety of seafood from Rivers near Bris

[Chas & Clarry]

I'm almost afraid to ask this, incase I get an answer that I don't want to hear.:(

It is ultimately a a fishing question so I hope that this is the right place to put it instead of in the news forum.

Has there ever been testing of the toxin levels of fish caught in Brisbane & Pine Rivers and others close to Brisbane? I mainly fish to get a feed, so this is a concern. Not sure if others share it. Obviously the news headlines in the Courier Mail today prompted it (Toxic Rivers...about the rivers in central and north Qld)

I'm sure we all have our opinions re whether they are OK to eat or not, but has there ever been testing that has been made public? I searched the web but couldn't find anything that I could interpret (couldn't find much at all actually). There has been stuff in the southern papers re fish in Sydney Harbour and other such places, (based in science not just opinion)...and they were recommending not to eat over a certain amount of fish from those areas especially if pregnant!

Anyone know? And does this issue influence whether you keep fish or not?

C&C

[Hamish73]

not an issue to me. I figure the snapp caught at Mud could have easily been at ther river an hour ago

[nthqld]

I always feed the cat a bit of each fish when i'm filleting the catch.
I worried about Ciguatera poison from reef fish.

Might not be a good test for acute poison but if its chronic poison...
least that damm cat will die when I do :)

[Foxy4]

I also read that report in the paper. I have not heard of any testing down in the Pine River, but there has been a lot of stuff taken and eaten from it and no body as died as yet. Or at least no reports of anyone dieing as yet.
So i would say that it must be okay.

[theclick]

Just cook it well and it should take care of any bugs.

As for metals, i'm sure if there was any massive problem, there would be signs up everywhere telling you not to eat fish taken from the rivers.

[Chas & Clarry]

Yes. I've got to say that I'm not too worried about the acute sorta eat it and drop dead/spew/runs type stuff :P that is more about how you cook it I recon...it is more the cumulative effect of heavy metals, carcinogenics etc.

I'm not too paranoid about it, I've been happily eating the stuff up til now, and will keep doing so. But Clarry won't touch stuff I catch further up the Pine than about the freeway bridge.

I'm just looking for evidence one way or the other

Chas

[bushbeachboy]

There used to be a fertiliser factory on Gibson Island, not far down stream from the Gateway Bridge. Not sure if it's still there though.

[haggis]

I dont really think about the place where I catch fish , the fish could be feeding
at luggage point then get caught out in the bay and end up on your plate
at the local takeaway shop . I wont fish luggage point but do fish the brissy & pine rivers & eat fish from them both .
cheers fae haggis .........................

[sharkymark2]

ahhhhh luggage point................. the sweet smell of s...................... being cooked :)

[seatime]

There used to be a fertiliser factory on Gibson Island, not far down stream from the Gateway Bridge. Not sure if it's still there though.

Incitec Sth, there is a facility on the Nth bank as well. There's lots of nasty crap going into the river from chemical/fuel/bulk plants. I used to transport thousands of lts of caustic and hydrocloric acid to Incitec, not saying it goes into the river tho.
an Ausfish member has reported illegal run-off from a production plant that flowed into the river before.

[gawby]

Kingtin catchs vermin in the rivers and he is still kicking so things must be right.
I haven't seen him glowing lately.
Graeme

[Chas & Clarry]

Well at least no one has put up a piece of science proving the fish or crabs will kill me, so I guess I'll keep eating them when I am lucky enough to catch them.

The best I came up with is a document called "Pine River and Redcliffe Creeks Environmental Values and Water Quality Objectives. March 2007" It looks like it is from the EPA.

Bottom line is that re the tidal parts of the Pine River (north and south) it lists protecting aquatic foods for human consumption (excluding oysters) as an objective, so I guess that means they are safe to eat now and the objective is to keep them that way into the future.:)

Still interested to hear if anyone has any objective info re Pine and Bris Rivers.

Thanks
Chas

[disorderly]

I always feed the cat a bit of each fish when i'm filleting the catch.
I worried about Ciguatera poison from reef fish.

Might not be a good test for acute poison but if its chronic poison...
least that damm cat will die when I do :)

I have fed around 50 small children at my kids school a couple of times with spanish mackeral up to nearly 50 pounds.http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/undecided.gif
None have died so far.http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/smiley.gif

Scott

[B_E_N]

dont know if its true or not but ive been told pike eels contain trace amounts of mercury so its not wise to eats large proportions of it. i know there have been studies before on water qaulity e.c.t even as far grading certain areas for quality so i guess they would have done substance tests to determine what is actually in the systems. i may have a book at home with some of the research, ill try and find it.

[Chas & Clarry]

Thanks B_E_N I'll be interested to hear if you turn it up. I found another report on Rivers in SE qld and they graded them on a scale of A to F. Pine River was D+ in 2002 (having been D in 2000.) (Healthy Waterways report)

It divided the Pine River into sections and not surprisingly the water treatment outlet up river from Castle hill was the poorest area for nutients, but improved quite a bit oner the 2 years.

Bris got a D-, Bremmer an F, Caboolture C, Bribie Passage B, Noosa A-. Problem is there isn't clarity re my question because it was a waterway report not about seafood quality. At least there is evidence that the general topic is being looked at and you'd assume (ie desperately hope) that if there was a safety issue these people would note it and make it public given that it is obvious that people are eating seafood from the areas!!

I'm still planning to eat it this far into the thread :)
Chas