FORT WAYNE – You may be celebrating a long holiday weekend by casting a line into Hoosier waters, but the state is warning citizens to think twice before eating what they catch.

The Indiana State Department of Health recently issued its annual Fish Consumption Advisory, which says that although fish are a wonderful source of protein and a source of many health benefits, the fish in many Indiana lakes and rivers are also contaminated with dangerous chemicals.

In addition to 20 pages of advisories on which fish to avoid in various streams and lakes, the report lists a dozen rivers the state says you should never eat any fish from. It also says common carp longer than 25 inches – no matter where they are caught – should never be eaten.

Willie E. Jordan, president of the Fort Wayne Community Fishing Club, said people should be outraged that so many waters have been contaminated. The fishing club is a non-profit group that runs youth fishing education programs such as Hooked On Fishing Not On Drugs.

“Our priorities are screwed up,” said Jordan, who was reached by cell phone while he was fishing on Williams Lake. “We give lip service to cleaning it up, but I don’t know that anybody’s doing anything about it.”

Indiana State Department of Health spokesman Ken Severson said the advisory, which can be found at tiny.cc/iuyqm, is not meant to frighten people or even steer them away from local fish.

“If you enjoy fish, don’t be afraid to eat it,” Severson said. The advisory is a “guide to which fish is best from which water bodies to allow you to make the right choice for you and your family.”

For any fish not listed, the advisory says, you should assume it is from Group 2 – fish that should be eaten in only one meal per week for adults and one meal a month for women who are pregnant, breast-feeding or plan to have children and for children under the age of 15.

Even fish in Group 1, the safest level out of five, should be eaten no more than once a week for women who are pregnant, breast-feeding or plan to have children and for children under the age of 15.

The risk from eating Group 5 fish once a week, which the state says should never be eaten, is roughly equivalent to 200 chest X-rays a year, according to the report.

“We have tried to include everything a person might want to know about eating sport-caught fish in Indiana,” said LaNetta Alexander, environmental epidemiologist at the Indiana State Department of Health.

“The advisory is designed to give people advice on the types of fish that are best choices for you and how often they should be consumed. Since fish is a great alternative protein source, this guidance can help you avoid the possible accumulation of harmful contaminants in your body.”

There are many contaminants in the water, the report says, but those of biggest concern – and the only ones the state tested for – are mercury and PCBs, because they can build up over time in fish tissue, making bigger, older fish more contaminated.

At least 50 bodies of water in northeast Indiana have advisories on the fish found there, including six in Allen County.

“I grew up in Fort Wayne. I used to fish the Maumee River when I was a kid,” Jordan said. But no more.

“I have friends that used to fish the St. Joseph River. They stopped fishing there. … Something needs to be done to clean the rivers up.”

Jordan said it’s great that the state issues an annual advisory, but it’s futile if nothing is done to change it.

“So they tell us the rivers are dirty,” Jordan said. “But are they going to do anything about it?”

Indiana Department of Natural Resources spokesman Phil Bloom said poisoned waters are nothing new.

“ ‘Stream pollution in Indiana, as in many other states, has only been given serious consideration in the last five or six years.’ That was written in 1913,” Bloom said. “Stream pollution is not a new problem, but it is definitely a concern.”

dstockman@jg.net