Stripers added to the do not eat list in D C.

[shrimpman steve]

Show me facts that fracking is harmful.

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by Reel Class

The Potomac has historically been a cess pool. Similar to the upper Hackensack, Passaic, and Raritan Rivers!

Yet the Passaic teems with Pike and black bass, all notoriously clean water species that need good oxygen content.. The Raritan has been going great guns with trout and smallies for years and Walleyes are more common every year.
The Hacky is loaded with fish these days.. A damn Sheepshead was caught there last year.... Same with the Hudson, simply loaded with fish of all species, and people eat them all te time...
The "cess pool "status you allocated to the rivers in question was well deserved , until the 80's.. The turnaround has been slow, but steady, and compared to what I knew as a young man in NJ, has been dramatic...
Much of the pcp and chemical pollution is under decades of sediment, and will stay there hopefully.. I was unable to fish the Passaic as a kid. There were NO fish except eels and killies.Same with the Hacky..The Passaic is now one of the premier Pike fisheries on the east coast, and the Hacky yields 25 pound stripers to urban fishermen in relative isolation. I am very hopeful for the rivers you mentioned. They get cleaner and more productive each year.... bob

[NoLimit]

Originally Posted by joemont

just curious paraquat , and fracking aren't real scares?

Back in the 70's, everyone was scared of dying from cancer because "they sprayed pot with paraquat". Then, everyone was going to die of AIDS. We also had Global Freezing. Now the bogeymen are fracking and global warming and Eboli and Zika. Its all BS. There is no more dumping in the rivers and has not been since the 80's. I have never heard about an incidence of higher death rates for people eating Jersey seafood so that tells me it is safe. If it wasnt, we would be seeing people getting sick (or worse).

[Capt Sal]

Originally Posted by joemont

just curious paraquat , and fracking aren't real scares?

Chicken little-''The sky is falling'' lol

[SaltLife1980]

Im not a big fan of eating bass anyways. I think I let go everyone I caught last year. I think i might have saved one for pops

[NoLimit]

Originally Posted by joemont

just curious paraquat , and fracking aren't real scares?

All those pictures of dirty well water is not fracking fluid. Those are wells in Pennsylvania, NY, etc where the gas and oil is in very shallow deposits. The oil and gas was there millions of years before these people came in and sunk their water wells. The water is ok for a while but as the table changes, surrounding gas and oil encroaches into the water well. http://www.earthmagazine.org/article...water-new-york

Also the Paraquat Pot scare never hurt a single person.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraquat

[Reel Class]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

Yet the Passaic teems with Pike and black bass, all notoriously clean water species that need good oxygen content.. The Raritan has been going great guns with trout and smallies for years and Walleyes are more common every year.
The Hacky is loaded with fish these days.. A damn Sheepshead was caught there last year.... Same with the Hudson, simply loaded with fish of all species, and people eat them all te time...
The "cess pool "status you allocated to the rivers in question was well deserved , until the 80's.. The turnaround has been slow, but steady, and compared to what I knew as a young man in NJ, has been dramatic...
Much of the pcp and chemical pollution is under decades of sediment, and will stay there hopefully.. I was unable to fish the Passaic as a kid. There were NO fish except eels and killies.Same with the Hacky..The Passaic is now one of the premier Pike fisheries on the east coast, and the Hacky yields 25 pound stripers to urban fishermen in relative isolation. I am very hopeful for the rivers you mentioned. They get cleaner and more productive each year.... bob

Bob, would you eat fish out of the passaic, raritan, or hackensack rivers? Be honest!

[Capt Sal]

Originally Posted by Reel Class

Bob, would you eat fish out of the passaic, raritan, or hackensack rivers? Be honest!

Are you saying the ''Raritan'' is polluted? I hope not!

[bulletbob]

I would probably follow the posted guidlines-they are usually posted near the fishing areas.. Also it would depend on what and where.. Say a smaller bluefish from Newark Bay, yes.. It was a visitor, not a resident.. An eel?.. no.

The Hacky signs say Stripers are ok, not to eat White Perch, Catfish, etc... I would go with that.. Not a fan of stripers anyway.
Up river in the non tidal areas, I would eat the fish..

Same with the Passaic.. Non tidal areas, yes I would eat some of the fish.. Perch, Bluegills, a very stray walleye, etc.. I don't kill black bass, pickerel, pike, and don't like bullheads,,

The Raritan, non tidal areas, yes I would eat the fish.. Lower tidal areas, I would eat some of the fish.. No cats,eels etc.. If I caught some white or yellow perch, or any migratory species, fluke, blue, weakfish, or even a winter flounder or porgy or something like that, I would certainly eat them.

Lower Raritan gets flushed pretty good with bay and ocean water with those big channels cut through the bay right out into the ocean...
I dunno, to be 100 % honest I would say that I would be more cautious in eating fish from those rivers than I would be if they were caught say in Sandy Hook Bay or one of the upstate lakes, but there are some fish I would eat from them.. We ate crabs form the hacky when they started coming back in the 70s, and I think a lot of people still do, not sure.. In 10 years, I hope that all those rivers are clean enough not to even have restrictions... They may get there.. I hope they do. Meanwhile I am happy that NJ fishermen can enjoy some seriously good fishing in waters that were dead 40 years ago. bob

[Capt Sal]

The fact of the matter is the South Branch and North Branch of the Raritan are super clean and are alive with aquatic insects. There are May fly hatches and and they hold trout year round. From Johnson Park in Newbrunswick to the mouth of Raritan Bay in Perth Amboy it holds stripers ,fluke and weakfish.The crabbing is good also. There is natural reproduction of striped bass in this river according to marine biologists.Comparing the Raritan with the Hackensack is apples and oranges.The rivers in our state are cleaner now than when i was a kid.