You can eat fish caught in the Hudson River for the first time in 50 years

WNBC 4 New York ^ | April 5, 2026 | Andrew Siff

[Fitzy_888]

The New York State Department of Health on Thursday shared updated guidance on eating fish you catch, and it includes a major change for the Hudson River.

For the first time in 50 years, the department says everyone can now eat "some fish" from the Lower Hudson River — that covers Rip Van Winkle Bridge in Catskill to the southern tip of Manhattan.

(...)

"PCB levels in some of the fish had gone down enough that we are now able to allow families — even younger women and children — to eat some of the fish," Van Genechten said.

(...)

[Fitzy_888]

I think it might be even better than the article portrays.

I attended a presentation about the railroad bridge replacement in Albany, NY, this is further upstream, but below the PCB source. To locate bedrock in the riverbed ahead of the new bridge design they did soil borings from a spud barge temporarily anchored in the river. Twelve or fourteen borings as I remember and they did sampling of the sediment in the riverbed. Of all the samples they only found PCB's in one sediment sample. To put it in context they said that if the concentration of PCB's in that sample came from a farm field it was low enough that you could grow food for human consumption.

[Jeff Chandler]

Which species are safe?

[Carriage Hill]

Not at gunpoint.

[V_TWIN]

Maybe YOU can. Lol!

None for me thanks. 👎✋️

[Responsibility2nd]

[rightwingcrazy]

I’m not eating a 50 year old fish.

[Codeflier]

I know it’s not the East River, but Kramer swimming still came to mind.

[DIRTYSECRET]

They $hit in their front yard.

[volare737]

If I ever get the urge to eat a fish from the Hudson river….,I’ll just lie down till it goes away!

[dforest]

When finished, you will glow in the dark.

[tlozo]

6-foot, 220-pound Atlantic sturgeon(endangered status) caught in Hudson River - June 27, 2024

[going hot]

When finished, you will glow in the dark.

That's an improvement. Used to be you would glow during daylight hours.

[volare737]

I just salivate at the thought of delicious Hudson River sushi!

[dforest]

Oh Lord, raw toxic chemicals! 😝

[ek_hornbeck]

When I was a kid, the rivers and harbors in the Northeast (not to mention the Great Lakes) were open sewers and industrial waste dumps. Not only would I not eat the fish, I wouldn't even want to come into contact with the water. Rivers like the Hudson + Mohawk, the Connecticut and Housatonic, the Merrimack etc as well as Boston and New York Harbor were so contaminated and smelly that riverfront property was cheaper than other properties.

A few decades later, many of these rivers and harbors have great fisheries (where overfishing rather than pollution is the main issue!) and there are swimming beaches close to Boston Harbor and the Great Lakes. Furthermore, riverfront and harborfront property is now more expensive than non-waterfront - people now want to live close to the water.

It's a real success story, and a reason that I support common-sense pollution regulation like the Clean Water act. I'm convinced that pollution is one of the issues that free markets cannot solve. It's unfortunate that the EPA's original mission of cleaning up smog and getting sewage/industrial waste out of our rivers has been replaced with obsessing over CO2 and methan emissions - neither of which is a pollutant!

[rdcbn1]

yeah, but the infamous Hudson White Fish are still hard on the teeth and tough to digest and there is a very healthy population

[rdcbn1]

yeah, but the infamous Hudson White Fish are still hard on the teeth and tough to digest and there is a very healthy population

[allendale]

Very rational post.

[rdcbn1]

“PCB levels in some of the fish had gone down enough that we are now able to allow families — even younger women and children — to eat some of the fish,” Van Genechten said.

---

Obviously not one of the “some of the fish” that are allegedly safe to eat

[healy61]

I recall hearing of Lake Erie having so much pollution that at times an area would catch fire and burn till gone. I recall they were planning to flush the entire of Lake Erie. It is amazing that it is clean today. Nearly all the lakes in our county (well over 100) have sewage drains to treatment plants.