San Jose anglers fishing the South Bay should make the keep-or-release decision before a fish reaches the cooler.
The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment updated its San Francisco Bay fish advisory in April 2023, based on mercury and PCB contamination.
A separate 2025 San Francisco Estuary Institute study found PFOS, a PFAS “forever chemical,” in Bay sport fish and reported that more than 80% of samples from the southern Bay exceeded Massachusetts’ one-meal-a-week PFOS threshold, compared with 8% in other Bay areas.
California has not set PFAS-specific fish consumption advice for San Francisco Bay fish. That makes the first rule simple: when in doubt, release the fish, especially near the Lower South Bay and Artesian Slough, where SFEI reported persistently high PFAS concentrations.
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