WESTON WEST VIRGINIA CARP FISHING TOURNAMENT June 27th - 28th 2008

IS IT SAFE TO EAT A CARP? By The Corpulent Carp Connosewer After reading the first article (What Is A Carp) and looking at the pictures, you might be wondering aloud "Who In Their Right Mind would WANT to eat such an ugly, dirty fish? The answer is - lots of people, and NOT just rednecks. In many European countries the Carp is considered a delicacy, In Austria for example, carp are raised in small "clean" water ponds and served as the main course at holiday feasts much like Americans eat turkey for Thanksgiving and ham for Christmas. The 'key' phrase above is "small clean water ponds" and refers to the environment a carp inhabits. If the water is clean the Carp tastes much like any other freshwater fish. Like all fish, the carp is in constant contact with the water it lives in and is constantly "filtering" that water through it's body to get it's nutrients and oxygen. Just as human lungs filter and absorb pollutants from the air we breathe, the flesh and organs of a fish take in whatever good or bad is in the water . The flesh of a fish will also have an odor beyond the "fishy" smell that reflects the quality of water it lives in. All fish are considered as healthy food sources and when properly prepared, provide a diet high in protein and low in saturated fats. Many doctors suggest that eating two pounds of fish each week is helpful in preventing heart disease. Almost any kind of fish may have real health benefits when it replaces a high-fat source of protein in the diet. However there are some risks associated with eating fish, especially those that live in waters (lakes, rivers, streams) that are contaminated with untreated sewage, industrial waste and other pollutants or toxins. Envirnomental protection agencies constantly monitor bodies of public water and make periodic surveys of fish populations to determine risks to humans from both the fish and the water. Some toxins found in the water and body tissue of certain fish are known carcinogens and can cause tumors and cancerous growths. The risk of humans getting cancer from eating contaminated fish cannot be predicted with certainty. Cancer currently affects about one in every four people by the age of 70, primarily due to smoking, diet, and hereditary risk factors. Exposure to contaminants in fish you eat may not increase your cancer risk at all, but it never hurts to be cautious. Fish species differ in diet, habitat, growth rate, and physiology, so different types of fish accumulate contaminants at different rates. Long-term effects of human exposure to contaminents have not been fully determined by health experts. Mercury for instance, is tightly bound to proteins in all fish tissue, including muscle. There is no method of cooking or cleaning fish which will reduce the amount of mercury in a meal. Fish absorb PCBs from water, suspended sediments, and food. PCBs concentrate in the fat of fish and particularly in fatty fish such as carp and catfish. Cleaning and cooking a fish to remove fat will lower the amount of PCBs you ingest. Larger, older fish, and fish which eat other fish, accumulate more contaminants than smaller, younger fish, which eat less contaminated prey. Like the catfish and the sucker, the carp is primarily a "bottom feeder" meaning that they scour the bottom of their lair (pond, lake, river) looking for prey that crawls, walks or tries to hide amongst the weeds and grasses. This makes such fish more vulnerable to ingesting pollutants such as toxins (pesticides, PCB's) and heavy metals (mercury, lead,) that sink to the bottom . ALL fish are susceptible to being "contaminated" by these pollutants, but the bottom feeders are exposed to more and greater amounts of these toxins because of the way they eat. Carp multiply rapidly and have few natural enemies and therefore live longer than most other species of fish. It is not uncommon for a carp to live 10 or 15 years and grow to 20-30 pounds and over three-foot long. A carp comes in contact with and absorbs a LOT of pollutants and toxins in such a lifespan and that is why it is often placed on the "warning" advisories of many state fishery departments. Not everyone who fishes or who eats fish is at risk, and there are methods of reducing such risks. Who is at Risk? Because contaminants may produce harmful effects when consumed over a period of time, humans are advised to limit the amounts of the riskier types of fish in our diet. PCBs and mercury build up in our bodies over time. Humans excrete mercury from our bodies, but that process also takes time. Therefore, it is important to regulate our meals of fish that are susceptible to contamination. Space such meals out over several weeks or months. It may take months or years of regularly eating contaminated fish to accumulate levels which would be a health concern. If you carefully follow the fish advisories when posted, carefully prepare and cook the fish, and limit the size and number of fish you eat, the amount of mercury you take into your body will have time to be safely eliminated between meals. People who regularly eat sport fish, women of childbearing age, and children are particularly susceptible to contaminants that build up in the body over time. If you fall into one of these categories, you should be especially careful to space out your fish meals so your body can get rid of contaminants over time, and prevent the contaminants from building up to harmful levels in your body. For example, if you regularly eat fish you catch from the local rivers once or twice a month-- wait two months before eating another meal of same kind of fish . This will give your body time to cleanse itself. All waterways in the United States contain some levels of contaminants (especially pesticides which are used in farming) Some are more polluted than others, and there are bodies of water from which it is inadvisable to eat any fish that live there. The Ohio river for example posts warnings signs against eating several species taken from those waters. Despite it's dark brown coloration, the West Fork River at Weston,West Virginia DOES NOT have a lot of industrial pollution, and has a relatively modern sewage treatment system so there are NO WARNINGS or advisories prohibiting the eating of carp from this river. Now that you know the carp here are relatively safe, your next question might be how to make the carp tasty. You'll need to know HOW to cook it. Next, some of the basic methods of cleaning and preparing a carp for cooking.