Unless you plan to eat a lot of pike, fairly routinely, you ought to be okay. For some reason, the EPA mercury guidelines for lakes are significantly more stringent than the FDA standards for food, such as canned albacore. Just being ultra conservative, I would not recommend pregnant women or young children eating the pike, even though the standards allow some limited consumption. They say don’t eat the walleye, so it is probably a wise precaution not to do so.

For most of our lakes with a mercury warning, it’s most likely naturally occurring mercury, and it is a bio-accumulation thing. Basically it moves up the food chain and by the time it gets to predators (such as pike and walleye) toward the top of the food chain, the mercury can build up and be stored in them from the critters they eat. That being said, our stocked trout have not been in the food chain at any of the lakes with background levels of mercury, so they are perfectly okay to eat.

Rory

Is it safe to eat the Pike out of Upper Lake Mary with the levels of mercury in the water? I have read in the AZG&F reulations that comsumption should be limited to 8oz per month and not to eat walleye.

Thanks,
Joe