HOUSTON — Many Houstonians have seen people fishing out of Houston’s bayous, but are those fish safe to eat?
It’s a question one KHOU viewer, Berna, emailed in Monday morning, after seeing people fishing in Brays Bayou near Braeswood and Holcombe.
“I have seen all kinds of trash floating down the bayou,” Berna writes. “I think it is un safe (sic).”
Dr. Loren Raun, Chief Environmental Science Officer for the Houston Health Department, says while agencies and groups have held fishing tournaments to remove the invasive types of fish from the bayous, eating any fish caught from the bayous is a different story.
“It is not safe to eat fish out of Brays Bayou,” said Dr. Raun, adding that eating fish from any of Houston's other bayous is also unsafe.
Dr. Raun says HHD tests the water in the bayous on a regular basis and finds its sediment has bacteria, dioxins, and PCBs. She says those toxic chemicals get into the soft bodies of the fish, which humans eat.
“Bacteria’s tested all the time,” said Dr. Raun. “Dioxins and PCBs were tested in the ship channel, but fish in the ship channel swim into the bayous. Those two chemicals cause cancer, so if you were to eat enough of them, and the fish were contaminated, you could put yourself at risk for developing cancer.”
Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, which monitors fish for the presence of environmental contaminants, provided KHOU with the most recent version of the advisory for the Houston Ship Channel and the waterways that feed into it.
A map shows the areas of concern and warns “women of child-bearing age” and children under 12 to avoid eating blue crab and all species of fish from the ship channel and surrounding bayous and rivers. For adult men and women past child-bearing age, they recommend eating no more than 8 ounces per month.
KHOU can verify that local and state health officials say, overall, eating fish from Brays Bayou or any of Houston’s bayous is not safe.
VERIFY: Sources
Houston Health Department
Texas Department of State Health Services
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