Do large (old) freshwater game fish have parasites that make them unfit for human consumption?

I wouldn’t worry about it, unless you haul the fish out of some nuclear waste pond. haha
I’m pretty sure our ancestors didn’t throw back the big old fish because they were worried about them being toxic.
Thorough cooking will kill any parasites and once dead they present no harm. Freezing also renders the parasites harmless from what I have read. People eat animal liver and that is the most toxic organ in the body. The organ that absorbs all toxins.

“haul the fish out of some nuclear waste pond” LOL…I often wondered if freezing sushi grade fish kills parasites.
Thank for your answer, Coloma :)

@azlotto Welcome to the Pod, we’re a good Grouper. lol

@Coloma I’m active here just for the halibut, but I’m glad I finally flounder.

@azlotto Not just by a fluke?

@janbb Lol…Some good eating there.

Look up information specific to the waters. There are parasites and more commonly there are pollutants.

And yes, the bigger ones are more of a problem. The little ones ingest things like mercury and the big ones eat the little ones and they get a concentrated dose.

Where I live, they advise eating big fish like trout and salmon from Lake Michigan no more than once a month, and little fish like smelt once per week (here’s a chart) .

I don’t eat it at all, the fact that there is any advisory kills my appetite.

On the other hand, I do eat trout from Lake Superior and rivers in northern Michigan. And I’m going to Colorado soon and we eat trout there, too.

@Call_Me_Jay…“I don’t eat it at all, the fact that there is any advisory kills my appetite” lol

As does mine. Most poisons to the human body are accumulative.

Well, I’m doomed, every morning when I spray the horses with fly repellent it blows back onto me. Nobody eat me. lol

@Coloma “fly repellent it blows back onto me. Nobody eat me. lol”...One day you might change your tune…Don’t get that repellent/poison on you….Your liver and kidneys will thank you later.

Certain waterways are worse than others. Some have more agricultural runoff, some actually have certain migrating birds that make it nasty. Some are closer to sewer lines. Some large predatory fish will develop more heavy metals,like mercury.

I would imagine that there is obtainable material about your area. If you’re in the US, DNR would be a good contact point.

The only thing I feel relevant in regards to size,or age of fish is that the larger ones have tougher meat.

@MrGrimm888 I’ll look into that. Thanks for your answer.

I thought that larger ocean fish – like tuna and swordfish – have more mercury in them.

@janbb We used to bring mercury to school and play with it…How times change..Thanks, janbb

@azlotto Yes, i had mercury for a science project and played with it all over my bedroom floor. It was so much fun!

^^^ Me too, Mercury was the coolest thing to play with as a kid. Aaah, well, I was a kid in the 60’s and probably consumed god knows how much DDT and other pesticides and I survived the 70’s too, still kickin’ along with a spring in my step pushing 60 in a couple years. When I’m pushing up Daisies they will be pest resistant no doubt. haha
Everything is polluted in our modern times, you just have to pick your poison, literally.

@Coloma “When I’m pushing up Daisies they will be pest resistant no doubt”... Heh, same here… I licked some insecticide containing DDT, I remember it tasted very bitter.

@janbb. Yes, larger saltwater fish have,to my understanding, more mercury.

Most parasites are either large nasty things you can remove, or can be killed through cooking to certain temperatures. So I thought I’d mention more relevant issues pertaining to fish.

Sometimes I get saltwater fish with some kind of organism living in their mouth. At first I thought they could be offspring, but the horrible truth is that they are some sort of parasite. As I researched them, the truth was so terrible, I stopped reading about them. This ‘thing’ eats the fishes tongue, and attaches itself in the mouth of the fish,where it then resides. I never kept a fish that had one. I get the hook out ASAP and put them back. Nature is very cruel.

@MrGrimm888 Those things are parasitic isopods…and yes, “Nature is very cruel”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua

I’m wondering if killing the infected fish would put it out of its misery.

^Yeah. They’re disturbing. I used to pull them out, but the fish would bleed and seem worse off. No win.

The Yellowstone in Wyoming is closed to recreation right now due to a parasite.

A previously unidentified strain of parasite has grown so prolific in the Yellowstone River that it is overwhelming whitefish, killing thousands and prompting the state last week to close more than 180 miles of the river to all recreation.

That hurts. A lot of people make a living in fishing and rafting tourism.

@Call_Me_Jay,...Wow Indeed…People don’t get this information on mass media.

“experiencing near-record low flows and high water temperatures.” That makes me wonder if Yellowstone volcano is about to blow its top…Thanks, Call_Me_Jay

@azlotto it’s more likely to be less runoff to cool the thermally warmed water.