I've lived in the East Village since 83. I can't begin to tell you how many guys I've seen fishing over the years when I go running in East River Park. ALOT. Many have been around for years, so they haven't died from eating the fish, I guess. LOL.

I could care less about eating the fish...I want to know if that pier at N 5th is open again...every time I went there it looked to be still closed!?

Eating any fish in large quantities will contaminate you with mercury. Even the city's upstate reservoirs have mercury advisories. Fishing in a city park is supposed to be done with a barbless hook and is catch and release only.

And there's nothing wrong with farmed fish -- certainly most of them are raised in cleaner waters than what we have around here. I'd limit my lower Hudson fish intake to once a year.

oops. they already posted that link. well anyway, some decent size strippers.

I just got my license to fish jamaica bay area, but mostly it's so i can park at breezy point and go swimming. Regardless I'm thinking of fishing the east river. There are plenty of blue and strippers in there. Saw a 36" blue pulled out this weekend. Not my kind of eatin fish but some people like em.

Lookit here: http://www.nycfishing.com/eastriver2.html

Funny - around lunchtime I took a walk around Hudson River Park and saw a very large striped bass. It was dead. It must have eaten another fish in the Hudson or East River.

Most of the fish people catch and eat in the ER and Hudson are migratory fish meaning they don't spend the majority of their time in those waters. Just passin through.

They are fine to eat in limited quantities (like any other).

As JGNY pointed out...shellfish, not so much.

What about Coney Island Whitefish?

zing!

Thats the best. the only fish with cream filling.

Mine still had a bone in it :(

That guy in the picture looks like a hairier Danny DeVito

What about the Hudson? Any better or worse for you?

Also:

As the water has become cleaner, the shad runs have slowly returned to the Hudson. Striped bass are increasing in number, though their flesh contains PCB contaminants, and eating them regularly isn’t a good idea.

Quoted from this article: http://nymag.com/news/features/56609/

"When there’s a rainstorm, far more water goes into our drainage system than sewage-treatment plants can handle. So the overflow pipes open wide, and all our wastewater—including the untreated effluvia of 8 million people—goes straight into the ocean. The day after a storm, the harbor is brown and thick with stirred-up silt that is shot through with human waste. Sometimes you can see shreds of toilet paper. When divers emerge from the harbor on those days, their suits have to be scrubbed down with bleach or kerosene before the men can strip them off."

All major cities have storm run-off's, New York just has a lot of it. This does not effect fish so long as you clean them first. It does however effect oysters, mussels, clams, crabs, etc.

I understnad people have an "EEwww" factor when it comes to fish from NY waters but this is healtier and more natural then buying farm raised fish at Pathmark.

Fish in the east river are no different then fish in the atlantic are a totally safe. Shellfish however are a different story, do not go clammin at the east river or Brooklyn Bridge park.

Also, you cannot eat the fish you catch in Prospect Park nor should you, the lake there is foul. I saw a dog once that found what appeared to be a human femur bone in the lake.

According to your link to Prospect Park, the policy there is catch and release, i.e., no feast.