Striped Bass & Bluefish Comsumption Alert

The Connecticut Department of Public Health is issuing renewed warnings that young children, and women who are pregnant, nursing or of childbearing age, should not eat two types of fish.
Authorities in Connecticut and six other East Coast states — Maine, New Hamsphire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland. — released coordinated warnings about the striped bass and large bluefish over 25 inches from their local waters. In Connecticut , both are commonly caught in Long Island Sound.

The fish contain polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, at levels that are of potential concern to the general public, according to the Connecticut Department of Public Health. PCBs can affect the endocrine system and brain development and can cause cancer in animals.

Wednesday's advisory reflected new data indicating that PCB levels have dropped. In the past few years, the state health department has recommended that the general public eat large bluefish and striped bass only once every two months, rather than every month as advised this year.

Children under 6 and women who are nursing, pregnant or of childbearing age are considered at higher risk and should not eat the fish at all. Everyone else should eat no more than one meal of the fish per month, according to the state health department.

The seven states released their advisories together so travelers would know to be cautious about the fish in all of the affected states, since the fish tend to move between states. "The species are migratory and many of the fish that are in Connecticut today could be in New Jersey in the fall," said Brian Toal, an epidemiologist with the state health department.

PCBs, which were used as coolants and lubricants in electrical equipment, have not been used in U.S. manufacturing for more than 30 years, but they exist in the ocean off the East Coast from past use, when they leaked into storm sewers and made their way into rivers and the ocean. Larger, predatory fish tend to accumulate higher levels of PCBs from eating smaller fish that have PCBs in them.

The health department is urging people to continue eating fish for their health benefits, such as omega 3 fatty acids. Other commonly eaten fish from Long Island Sound, including blackfish, winter flounder, fluke and scup, are low in PCBs and other contaminants.