oak orchard rumor of being polluted.

[jason]

i got a phone call this morning from a friend who said not to eat fish out of lake ontario because it polluted. i know when we left the oak river there was a raw sewage smell. can any give me the correct info or is this just a rumor.

[keith]

Ontario has been polluted for many, many years. High levels of heavy metals, PCBs, pesticides, etc. There are suggested limitation as to how much fish you should eat from the lake/tribs.

http://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/ ... estern.htm

[Mortigan]

He probably saw the recent Beach Closings report published a few days ago: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/art ... /306270030

As far as fish consumption, the standard Department of Health warnings apply - but many disagree with the validity: http://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/ ... ooklet.pdf

[Paul Czarnecki]

i got a phone call this morning from a friend who said not to eat fish out of lake ontario because it polluted. i know when we left the oak river there was a raw sewage smell. can any give me the correct info or is this just a rumor.

OH BOY! Tell your friend to quit worrying. He probably told you that while eating a Big Mac infused with dioxins, botoxins, steroids and insecticides. Lake Ontario is NOT polluted. If it is, so is Lake Erie since Ontario gets almost all of its water from Erie. In fact, ALL of the Great Lakes are cleaner than they have ever been. This is evidenced by the immense presence of the smaller members of the food chain. Alewives, emerald shiners and smelt are thriving in lake Ontario like never before. Look at all the spiny water flea complaints on here----they could not live in a polluted lake. As to the DEC "advisorys"---virtually every doctor I have ever had contact with has said that you could not possibly eat enough salmon in your lifetime to suffer any ill effects. The health benefits of eating salmon FAR outweigh the risks.

The "raw sewage smell" you caught at the mouth of the Oak Orchard Harbor was caused by all of the dead and dying algae and seaweed washed up on the beaches to the east and west of the harbor. It is the same in almost every harbor right now. Take a walk along the beach or the rocks and you'll see what I mean. Its exacerbated right now because the lake just came out of transition. During transition the lake "flips over" causing massive amounts of bottom algae and weeds to float to the surface. It floats around for several weeks.....decaying.....until it eventually gets washed up on a beach where it remains for the summer.

Feel free to show your friend this post and then remind him that the world is supposed to end in December of this year so he should start worrying about that instead of discouraging you from enjoying everything Lake Ontario has to offer.

[Mortigan]

Feel free to show your friend this post and then remind him that the world is supposed to end in December of this year

I forgot the world was ending. Good excuse to spend more time fishing!

[jason]

thanks for the replies gentlemen, ill just treat it as a rumor.

[Paul Czarnecki]

Feel free to show your friend this post and then remind him that the world is supposed to end in December of this year

I forgot the world was ending. Good excuse to spend more time fishing!

.......and hunting, and playing poker and......

[ray koziatek]

Like paul said cleaner than ever......

http://www.epa.gov/lawsregs/laws/cwahistory.html

toss in a few gazillion zebra filters and clearer than ever too...that allows the sun to penetrate deeper water for wider weed lines to shelter more bait in its vulnerable year (time)..

soon and ive seen a few already(sodus) botchulisum killed seagulls will be a common site ,as the lake goes through its normal cycle(or common cycle)

[kremer01]

Ray will be buffy fishing 24 hours a day now!!

[Mortigan]

[Mick]

Like Paul said, the smell in the harbor is as when the water level drops over the summer, all of the algea that has been growing on the piers over the year gets exposed to the sun, and dies/rots. Have you ever pulled weeds/grass clipings and left them in a wheelbarrow for a few days? They don't smell too nice either after a few days rotting in the sun and being rained on!!!!

[rail bird]

There was a warning that hit the news today about eating fish that are caught near alge blooms. Here is a link of what to look for. Not too common in Lake O because of the cold water turnover but the river could see a bloom if it gets real hot.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/77118.html

[Captain Carl Bish]

I don't buy the dying alge smell.............yes that will stink, but the smell to the west of the Oak has some other origin. IMO

In 1987 I studied under Dr. Makarwitz, NY Sea Grant, and did a research project on likely health effects of the bioaccumulative toxins found in Lake Ontario salmonids. Findings of Michigan Health Dept, NY DEC & Health department and all studies at that time including a longitudinal MI study showed no greater occurrence of adverse health effects in the study groups than in the general population.

BUT...............the States insist on the advisories because the toxins are present in the fish. (All testing is done by grinding up the entire fish - raw; being that toxins are fat soluble, the greatest concentrations would be in the skin, blood, belly meat, oils and organs but not the muscle which is what most of us eat.)

That said, I would recommend pregnant women (effect on fetal development) or breast feeding moms to NOT eat fish of any type especially Tuna from a can because Hg poisoning is bad news for babies and it won't take much!

On the anecdotal side, also in 1987 a client from a state to the south of NY exclaimed: "I don't eat no fish from this lake, they will kill you!", as he flicked his ciggarette butt into the lake. He doen't fish with me any more, but 2 of his buddies and his son will be up next Saturday.............they love to eat fish!

[ray koziatek]

I had a wonderfull atlantic , for dinner last nite a little salt pepper,garlic powder,bayou season,and smokehouse maple (not to much) and ya couldnt eat a better tastin salmon south of alaska..

AND IM LOVIN MY 3RD ARM ok just kiddin ,it was great!!!!

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

Thank you Paul C. and Carl B. Well put and accurate. You guys saved me finger cramps, LOL. The only thing I would add is cold water fish and their unique oils are one of the few foods proven to REVERSE heart disease, one our nations largest killers.

[LongLine]

I've never seen an obituary saying someone died of eating Lake Ontario fish.

On the other hand, Ray K has been eating them a long time. So if you develop spelling issues...maybe you've eaten too many?

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[BSmaster]

Deeper the lake, the longer residence time for the lake to clear itself. Lake O is 6 years. Lake O is the 2nd deepest and last in the chain of great lakes. I agree with all the posts on here except the references to Ray .

Lake is only getting cleaner and Dr's will tell you to eat fish from almost anywhere - that the benefits far outweigh the risks. The cleanest fish as far as pollutants is supposedly tuna. Always said that children should limit their intake. I do not know if there is any sufficient (or legit) data to support this.

I took the family to Sodus Pt today and when we got out of the car it was absolutely pewtrid. All the rotten moss had piled up along the break wall and the wind was blowing towards the Coast Guard building. We walked up westward and the smell was gone. It is the same smell you get if you play with the muck in a swamp. It is just rotten plant life.

[ray koziatek]

In fla when the wind and tides are just right the weeds pile up and it smells just like home....their is a lot of life in those weeds (small critters) that give it that wonderfull aroma like" Fishermens" (Tom) cookin..

[FISHINMAN]

In fla when the wind and tides are just right the weeds pile up and it smells just like home....their is a lot of life in those weeds (small critters) that give it that wonderfull aroma like" Fishermens" (Tom) cookin..

Who's this "fisherman" you speak of Ray L? It's FISH"IN"MAN !!! I couldn't cook anything to make it smell that bad unless it was your undies and if it smells "just like home" you might wanna hire a cleaner

Sandy Creek had a bunch of algae floating on it when I was there Tuesday but DOES NOT stink like the Oak. That was brutal when I was there Sunday No one wants to say it but is there a chance maybe some of those cottages are dumping sewage into the creek hey before anybody jumps on me, it certainly wouldn't be the first time something like that took place.

[panfisher]

Well stated Paul C.and Carl B.! Excellent Ray k Almost anywhere you catch fish, there will be some funky odors... even salt water. And it is wise to be aware of and critical of pollution sources. Lord knows folks can and have messed stuff up real fast.....

[Has Been]

An older guy told me once that the watershed for the Oak drains from all the farmlands upstream . All the fertilizers & weedkillers come down the stream from above. Was his thought that is why the fishing is not as good as it once was. It kind of makes sense but I don't know how much I buy it.

Been at my bro's place at Johnsons. Been days that it stunk to high heaven there also, but more from the lake.

Can't wait till I see the ADKs & smell that mountain air !!

[Paul Czarnecki]

An older guy told me once that the watershed for the Oak drains from all the farmlands upstream . All the fertilizers & weedkillers come down the stream from above. Was his thought that is why the fishing is not as good as it once was. It kind of makes sense but I don't know how much I buy it.

Been at my bro's place at Johnsons. Been days that it stunk to high heaven there also, but more from the lake.

Can't wait till I see the ADKs & smell that mountain air !!

The fishing is "not as good as it once was"...........WOW!

[Has Been]

This info came from a guy who fished it back in the 50's ,right up till recently. He was talking about warm water species. Bass , Pike & the like. I do agree with him on some level . When I was a kid(before the present day rock jetties & breakwall, the wood dock days ) ,it seemed to be better.

[BSmaster]

I can not go back to the 50s. My Delorean broke down.

I think the turbidity (at the docks) makes things seem worse then they are. The water at the falls/powerplant/archer's club does not resemble the water at the Point Breeze. I am always impressed with the health of the fishery when I am upstream. There is a lot of bait in the estuary and this scenario can mislead even the most experienced of fisherman into thinking that something is wrong. Throw an artificial bait in front of a fish, that heard/saw you coming, that is full of fresh bait hiding in cover and I think you will find it difficult to catch quality fish. Add in the smell of decay and uh oh, the stream is polluted. Maybe I am quick to dismiss this because I grew up on a lake where 1/3 was a bog and the bottom was peat, but smell isn't a real accurate way to determine how polluted something is.

A friend of mine was telling me how his child hood stream use to be full of trout and he could catch them all day long. He said twenty years later it changed and he couldn't find any. His first inclination was the stream was polluted somehow and the fish were killed off because of this. After thinking this and telling numerous people for years, he found out later that a small village upstream use to have septics run directly into the stream with no leach field or treatment and that the suckers would travel up from the rivers to spawn and feed on this sewage. As time progressed, the Environmentalists cleaned this stream up thus removing the food for the suckers which removed the food for the trout. This is a true story. I do not know how accurate it is. But I think you get my point.

I really thought this thread would slip into the archives by now. Parties involved with tourism probably do too. Just a rumor. Go fishing.

[rolmops]

"The cleanest fish as far as pollutants is supposedly tuna"

That was before they checked on mercury. Now according to the Sierra Club magazine it is the fish with the highest mercury content,so high that daily consumption of tuna actually causes mercury poisoning.

The DEC has very clear advice concerning the consumption of fish out of Lake Ontario,as does its Canadian counterpart. These 2 agencies are the only ones around that do research to back up their advice. All the other comments here are opinion based.

I will stick to research backed advice.