MIBowhunter
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Warning: Fish intake advisories get canned
By Steve Griffin
Field Editor
Midland, Mich. — Michigan anglers have long hoped a day would come when they wouldn’t be reading warnings advising them to avoid or limit eating their catch.
They hoped that cleaner waters would lead to cleaner fish, though — not that tough budgetary times would make printing the advisories too expensive.
Yet that’s what apparently is happening. State officials announced that they’ll no longer publish the brochure of advisories against eating fish contaminated with heavy metals and alphabetically nightmarish compounds.
T.J. Bucholz, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH), told Michigan Outdoor News that the state Legislature in the mid-1990s began annual appropriations of $350,000 to fund development and publication of advisory booklets, including specific recommendations keyed to fish species and sizes and individual waters.
At the program’s peak, we printed and distributed up to one million per year,” Bucholz said, and they were generally available free wherever fishing licenses were issued, as well as at other outlets.
The appropriations were in place until 2002, when state budget problems brought them down. MDPH shifted to inside funds — but those have been consumed as well.
Last year, just 50,000 guides were produced, and they were directed to medical practices, agencies, and other services where contact with pregnant women, the people with the largest concerns about pollutants, was likely.
And already-tight state budgets continue to tighten.
“It’s not that we don’t think this program is important,” Bucholz said. “We do. But budget concerns are forcing us to take a look at reducing actual health care programs.
“The Department of Community Health is responsible for many things. We manage the state Medicaid program, for example, which provides basic health care to 1.3 million of the state’s most vulnerable citizens.”
Given that most Michigan anglers and their families know that there are contaminant concerns in some fish, and that up-to-date web-based information is available, the guide became a casualty.
The DNR’s role in fish advisories? Mainly in collecting fish for sampling — a simple and inexpensive task since DNR research boats were already on the water collecting fish for other research.
The 2004 Michigan Fish Advisory shows you which fish are OK to eat and how often they can be eaten. To get a copy call (800) 454-8041, or go to the MDCH web site at www.michigan.gov.
By Steve Griffin
Field Editor
Midland, Mich. — Michigan anglers have long hoped a day would come when they wouldn’t be reading warnings advising them to avoid or limit eating their catch.
They hoped that cleaner waters would lead to cleaner fish, though — not that tough budgetary times would make printing the advisories too expensive.
Yet that’s what apparently is happening. State officials announced that they’ll no longer publish the brochure of advisories against eating fish contaminated with heavy metals and alphabetically nightmarish compounds.
T.J. Bucholz, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH), told Michigan Outdoor News that the state Legislature in the mid-1990s began annual appropriations of $350,000 to fund development and publication of advisory booklets, including specific recommendations keyed to fish species and sizes and individual waters.
At the program’s peak, we printed and distributed up to one million per year,” Bucholz said, and they were generally available free wherever fishing licenses were issued, as well as at other outlets.
The appropriations were in place until 2002, when state budget problems brought them down. MDPH shifted to inside funds — but those have been consumed as well.
Last year, just 50,000 guides were produced, and they were directed to medical practices, agencies, and other services where contact with pregnant women, the people with the largest concerns about pollutants, was likely.
And already-tight state budgets continue to tighten.
“It’s not that we don’t think this program is important,” Bucholz said. “We do. But budget concerns are forcing us to take a look at reducing actual health care programs.
“The Department of Community Health is responsible for many things. We manage the state Medicaid program, for example, which provides basic health care to 1.3 million of the state’s most vulnerable citizens.”
Given that most Michigan anglers and their families know that there are contaminant concerns in some fish, and that up-to-date web-based information is available, the guide became a casualty.
The DNR’s role in fish advisories? Mainly in collecting fish for sampling — a simple and inexpensive task since DNR research boats were already on the water collecting fish for other research.
The 2004 Michigan Fish Advisory shows you which fish are OK to eat and how often they can be eaten. To get a copy call (800) 454-8041, or go to the MDCH web site at www.michigan.gov.
