TIPS OF THE DAY :
* Try to space out your fish meals. For example, if the advice is that you can eat up to four meals a month; don't eat them all in the same week. This is particularly important for women and young children.
* To reduce exposures to mercury, avoid or eat less largemouth and small mouth bass, northern pike, pickerel, wall-eye and larger yellow perch (for example, longer than 10 inches) because these fish tend to have higher mercury levels, particularly in the Adirondack and Cat skill regions.
* PCBs, dioxin, mirex, DDT, chlordane and dieldrin are found at higher levels in the fat of fish. You can reduce the amount of these contaminants in a fish meal by properly trimming, skinning and cooking your catch. Remove the skin and trim all the fat from the belly flap, the line along the sides, and the fat along the back and under the skin (see diagram on the below). Cooking or soaking fish cannot eliminate the contaminants, but heat from cooking melts some of the fat in fish and allows some of the contaminated fat to drip away. Broil, grill or bake the trimmed, skinned fish on a rack so that the fat drips away. Do not use drippings to prepare sauces or gravies. These precautions will not reduce the amount of mercury or other metals. Mercury is distributed throughout a fish's muscle tissue (the part you eat), rather than in the fat and skin. The only way to reduce mercury intake is to eat less contaminated fish.