John Gurley, a spokesman for Connecticut’s Zero Mercury Campaign, urged all fishermen to follow Connecticut’s Depart-ment of Environmental Protect-ion recommendations for limiting consumption of any freshwater fish.

State officials suggest that women of childbearing age, pregnant women and children under age six eat only one serving of freshwater fish per month. The DEP’s recommendation is that everyone else limit their consumption of freshwater fish to one serving per week.

Gurley said, "there are fish consumption warnings for every freshwater lake, pond, river and stream (in Connecticut) due to the high levels of mercury found in fish."

The only exception to the recommended limits would be trout less than 15 inches long, according to Gurley. He said most Connecticut trout less than that length have been recently put into streams and lakes from fisheries and haven’t had time to ingest significant levels of mercury.

Gurley explained that mercury is concentrated as it moves up the food chain from smaller prey fish to larger predators such as the larger trout.

DEP officials will be out at six locations today, including Wharton Brook State Park in Wallingford, Wolfe Park in Monroe, Southford Falls State Park in Oxford, Chatfield Hollow State Park in Killingworth, Black Rock State Park in Watertown, and Stratton Brook State Park in Simsbury, to continue the state’s trout stocking program and to answer questions about the state’s fishing programs and regulations.

A variety of polluters, including coal-fired power plants and municipal trash incinerators, are responsible for mercury contamination of fresh water. Gurley, a member of Clean Water Action, said the amount of mercury in a thermometer is only about one gram, but that’s enough to contaminate a 20-acre lake for a year.

Experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimate that some 60,000 American children are born each year with developmental problems as a result of mercury pollution.

New regulations to limit mercury emissions from municipal incinerators in Connecticut went into effect last July. According to Gurley, municipal incinerators, which had been New England’s largest source of mercury pollution as a result of burning items such as thermometers, fluorescent light bulbs and switches in appliances and automobiles that contained mercury.

Gregory B. Hladky can be contacted at ghladky@nhregis-ter.com or at (860) 524-0719.