Despite stepped-up efforts, state programs provide inconsistent protection from widespread contamination of fish caught for recreation and subsistence. Fish consumption advisories rose more than 70 percent between 1993 and 1996, the most recent year for which nationwide data are available. And few or no advisories are not necessarily an indication that fish in a particular state are safer, because state advisory programs vary dramatically in quality.
Some states conduct extensive sampling while others do much less.
States also vary considerably in the methods they use to estimate risks of consumption of contaminated fish, so that fish under advisory in one state may not receive an advisory in another state. While there is great inconsistency among state programs, the number of advisories and the number of states issuing them indicate a critical problem with contamination in many of our nation's water bodies, and they are especially troubling in light of the fact that 20 percent of the fish consumed in the U.S. is caught recreationally. Because many toxic compounds are still being released into or moving around in the environment, however, contamination by some chemicals may also be on the rise. The more states look, the more they find. Approximately 64 percent of the advisories issued in 1996 were for mercury, which causes damage to the nervous system and affects the development of fetuses and infants.