PORT CLINTON – Fish caught from Lake Erie should be safe to eat despite toxic algae in the lake's Western Basin, scientists said.
Tests done last year and in 2011 — the worst year on record for massive harmful algal blooms — showed the fish were not contaminated with the toxin, scientists said.
"At this point, we have no indication they are not safe to eat," said Jeff Reutter, director of Ohio State University's Ohio Sea Grant College Program and Stone Laboratory.
Harmful blue-green algae on Lake Erie can produce a nerve toxin, called microcystin, that can cause liver problems and gastrointestinal illness. Earlier this month, microcystin contaminated the city of Toledo's drinking water, causing the city to warn its more than 400,000 customers not to drink the water for two days.
Ohio State University professor Jay Martin — who works in university's college of food, agricultural and biological engineering — tested fish collected by charter captains in the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association last year and did not find toxin, Reutter said. Martin was not available for comment Wednesday evening.
Martin, Stu Ludsin, assistant professor at OSU's department of evolution, ecology and organismal biology, and other colleagues at Ohio State are continuing to study how harmful algal blooms might affect fish.
The state also sampled fish caught from the lake in 2011 and did not find toxin, said Chris Vandergoot, fisheries biologist supervisor at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Sandusky Fish Research Unit.
"The recommendation is not to eat any of the liver or entrails," Vandergoot said. "That's where the toxins tend to accumulate."
Anglers also should make sure to wash the fillets in clean water, he said.