Mercury: Are Your Fish Safe to Eat?

Are your fish safe to eat? We are launching a new project to answer this question and we need your input! Join us for our upcoming open house and training session in August.

Background

For quite a few years now William Tozer (Camp Onakawana), Stephen McGovarin and Mary-Claire Buell (Collective Environmental) have been looking into the mercury levels in fish in the Moose and Abitibi River watersheds, their pilot project in 2018 revealed very high levels of mercury which was concerning because many of the fish they caught weren’t safe to eat.

Because of this we submitted a proposal in partnership with Moose Cree First Nation to further investigate this issue. Our goal is to learn more about the mercury in fish within Moose Cree Territory, and to understand the risks to those who eat them; it will also be important to share this information with the community, one way we hope to do that is through a custom fish consumption guideline.

Our hope is to start this project by asking the community where they fish by hosting an open house, this way we can share more information and also make sure we collect samples from the right spots, so the guideline is useful to those who fish, and to those who eat locally caught fish. We also hope to train local harvesters on sampling so they can participate in the project and so that when they go fishing, they can donate samples to the project.

Join us for the Open House

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2022
Thomas Cheechoo Arena Viewing Area
6 pm – 9 pm

The open house will have refreshments and door prizes (fishing net, tablet, gift cards). Don’t miss this important event!

Fish Sampling Drop-In Training

Interested in contributing fish to the project? Join us for drop-in training on fish sampling!

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2022
Thomas Cheechoo Arena Viewing Area
6 pm – 9 pm

Gift cards will be provided to those who participate in the training.

Project Partners:

William Tozer, Camp Onakawana
Alexandre Litvinov, Land & Resources Department, Moose Cree First Nation
Clarence Trapper, Land & Resources Department, Moose Cree First Nation
Ron Spencer, Land & Resources Department, Moose Cree First Nation
Mary-Claire Buell, Collective Environmental
Stephen McGovarin, Collective Environmental