Guidelines for Fish Consumption

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued fish consumption advice for many water bodies in California

Links to the advisories and safe eating guidelines that OEHHA has developed and issued to date are provided below

OEHHA updated many of the advisories in March 2009. A report describing how OEHHA updated each advisory can be accessed by following this link: 2009 Update of California Sport Fish Advisories

Most advisories are issued because of mercury in fish. In a few cases, fish are contaminated with PCBs or other chemicals.

OEHHA gives two sets of guidelines for fish with mercury. Because babies and children are most sensitive to possible health effects from mercury, OEHHA recommends women ages 18 – 45 and children 1 – 17 years eat fish less frequently than men over 17 years and women over 45 years.

In OEHHA’s advisories, fish are divided into three categories based on their level of contamination.

Follow the written advice under each panel for the fish in it.

Do not combine advice:

You can choose one fish from the “1 serving a week” category to eat that week. Then do not eat other fish from that group or from another category until the next week. If you choose fish that can be eaten 3 servings a week, you can combine fish species from that group for a total of 3 servings in that week.

Safe Eating Guidelines are given as the recommended number of servings a week.

OEHHA's advisories, listed below, are arranged generally from north to south.

To read the advice for a specific location and find other materials related to that advisory, follow the link for the location that interests you.

· Consumption Recommendations: Lake Del Valle
· Consumption Recommendations: Lake Chabot
· Consumption Recommendations: Bay and Delta Region

If you fish at a location that does not have an advisory, you should follow OEHHA's general guidelines contained in the following link: General Health Advisory Brochure

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have also issued national advice for women and children in their Joint Federal Advisory for Mercury in Fish. This advice recommends that women who are pregnant or might become pregnant, nursing mothers, and young children consume no more than one meal per week of locally caught fish, when no other advice is available, and eat no other fish that week. OEHHA recommends that women of childbearing age and children aged 17 years and younger follow this advice when no other recommendations are in place.

More information on the Joint Federal Advisory for Mercury in Fish can be found at:

http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fishadvice/advice.html
or
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/admehg.html 

Safe Eating Guidelines for Fish from Del Valle Reservoir
(Alameda County)
[03/18/09]

Safe Eating Guidelines for Fish from Del Valle Reservoir

Women 18 – 45 and Children 1 – 17 Years

Men over 17 Years and Women over 45 years

For more information on Del Valle Reservoir, contact: Alameda County Health Services, Environmental Health Department at (510) 567-6700.

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Follow this link to download a fact sheet for nine bay area reservoirs

Note: the 2004 interim health advisories were removed from the fact sheet. OEHHA developed state advisories for fish from each of the reservoirs with an adequate data set for evaluation.

Be sure to use the UPDATED safe eating guidelines for Del Valle Reservoir shown on this page (above).

Safe eating guidelines for other bay area reservoirs can be found at this link.

For information about a study of chemicals in fish from bay area reservoirs conducted by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board in 2000-2002, follow this link to access the Water Board’s report)

Safe Eating Guidelines for Fish from Lake Chabot
(Alameda County)
[03/18/09]

Safe Eating Guidelines for Fish from Lake Chabot

Women 18 – 45 and Children 1 – 17 Years

Men over 17 Years and Women over 45 years

*Note: Advice based on levels of PCBs is the same for all men, women, and children. PCBs can cause the same health effects in people of all ages. When advice is based on mercury levels, however, OEHHA gives special advice to women ages 18 – 45 and children 1 – 17 years. This population should eat fish containing mercury less often to protect babies and children, who can be more sensitive to mercury.

For more information on Lake Chabot, contact: Alameda County Health Services, Environmental Health Department at (510) 567-6700.

Back to top

Follow this link to download a fact sheet for nine bay area reservoirs

Note: the 2004 interim health advisories were removed from the fact sheet. OEHHA developed state advisories for fish from each of the reservoirs with an adequate data set for evaluation.

Be sure to use the UPDATED safe eating guidelines for Lake Chabot shown on this page (above).

Safe eating guidelines for other bay area reservoirs can be found at this link.

For information about a study of chemicals in fish from bay area reservoirs conducted by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board in 2000-2002, follow this link to access the Water Board’s report

San Francisco Bay and Delta Region

· Because of elevated levels of mercury, PCBs, and other chemicals, the following interim advisory has been issued. A final advisory will be issued when the data have been completely evaluated.

· Women beyond childbearing age and men should eat no more than two meals per month of San Francisco Bay sport fish, including sturgeon and striped bass caught in the delta. (One meal for an adult is about eight ounces).

· Women beyond childbearing age and men should not eat any striped bass over 35 inches.

· Women of childbearing age, pregnant, nursing mothers, and children should not eat more than one meal of fish per month. In addition, they should not eat any striped bass over 27 inches or any shark.

· This advisory does not apply to salmon, anchovies, herring, and smelt caught in the bay; other sport fish caught in the delta or ocean; or commercial fish.

· Richmond Harbor Channel area: In addition to the above advice, no one should eat any croakers, surfperches, bullheads, gobies or shellfish taken within the Richmond Harbor Channel area because of high levels of chemicals detected there.

Mussels and Other Shellfish in San Francisco Bay

· Health Advisory: OEHHA recommends that sport harvesters not take or eat mussels from the bayside shoreline on the west and south sides of Ballena Boulevard and that recommends that anglers should include mussels and other shellfish as they follow the existing San Francisco Bay and Delta region fish consumption advisory.

Advisory for San Francisco Bay and Delta in Other Languages

Provisional Acerca de la Pesca Deportiva para la Bahia de San Francisco (Spanish - html) *
Provisional Acerca de la Pesca Deportiva para la Bahia de San Francisco (Spanish - pdf) *
Cambodian - (pdf) *
Chinese - (pdf) *
Korean - (pdf) *
Vietnamese - (pdf) *

For a summary of the initial pilot study conducted in San Francisco Bay, follow this link:
Chemical Contaminants in San Francisco Bay
June 1995 Study Results

For an overview of activities at San Francisco Bay, follow this link:
Overview of San Francisco Bay Sport Fish Contamination and Response Activities
[09/09/99]

For a summary of the chemicals of concern in fish, follow this link:
Summary of Chemicals of Concern Found in Fish
San Francisco Bay Pilot Study, 1994

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