The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, released an online consumption guideline for fish caught from waterbodies across the state.
The DNR routinely samples fish from popular angling areas and waters with suspected pollution and contaminants, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mercury and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), a type of PFAS. Scientists use the levels of contamination found in the fish and the best available evidence for how those contaminants affect human health to determine how much fish is safe to eat over a lifetime.
Since the DNR published the prior version of Choose Wisely in 2024, the Great Lakes Consortium for Fish Consumption Advisories updated its recommended fish consumption guidelines for levels of PFOS in fish fillets. The DNR and DHS reviewed these new recommendations and made changes to several existing consumption advisories.
The DNR and DHS encourage anglers and those eating fish from Wisconsin’s waters to review the newly updated recommendations in Choose Wisely to ensure they are following current safe-eating guidelines. Anglers can also look for signage with waterbody-specific advisories posted at some access points to help make decisions about which fish to keep in order to minimize consuming unwanted contaminants.
In addition to the updated Choose Wisely booklet, waterbody-specific consumption advice can be found by using the DNR’s online query tool.
