By Khanh Ho and Sinang Lee, Environmental Health Services Division

It’s salmon season in our Puget Sound area! For the Duwamish River, a Superfund site in south Seattle, salmon are the healthiest options to catch and eat – particularly chum, coho, pink and sockeye! Yum! For the resident seafood that call the river their home, unfortunately they are unsafe to eat because of the PCB contamination at the bottom of the river.  So please avoid the perch, sole, flounder, crab, mussels and clams from this site – and go for the salmon! 

Not so sure how to catch salmon? Or not clear about the relevant fishing rules? Well, you are in luck! We talked with Emma Maceda-Maria, a lead community health advocate from the Grupo Asesor Latino who has partnered with us on our Duwamish Fun to Catch, Toxic to Eat Program since 2017. She shared about the launch of a new video series Healthy Fishing on the Duwamish: Let’s Catch Salmon that she made in collaboration with other advocates from the Latino, Khmer (Cambodian), and Vietnamese fishing communities.

Q: Who are the videos made for?

This new video series is made by community for community. We worked alongside Public Health, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), and University of Washington Superfund Research Center to bring the best videos possible for our communities – especially to our fishers, fisher families and vulnerable community members who are elderly people, pregnant/nursing mothers, babies, and young children in the Duwamish River area.

Q: What will viewers see?

We made the videos in multiple languages to help our communities get all the information needed prior to going fishing. These videos include the history of the Duwamish River, step-by-step fishing gear shopping, how to get your fishing license and so much more. Each video is short yet full of all the information needed to keep our communities educated and safe.

Q: Who are the Community Health Advocates?

The most amazing part of this video series is that it brought three outstanding communities together to help create these videos. We are the Latino, Khmer, and Vietnamese Community Health Advocates. We are community members that work together to bring important information to our communities about the risks of consuming residential seafood from the Duwamish River. We help promote healthier options which are fishing and eating salmon. We also inform them about all the great health benefits of eating salmon. It’s rich in omega-3 fatty acids, great source of protein and many more. We hope you enjoy these videos and try our delicious salmon recipes.

Check out the video series at WDFW YouTube Channel:

English: Healthy Fishing on the Duwamish: Let’s Catch Salmon

Spanish: Pesca saludable en el río Duwamish: ¡Vamos a atrapar salmón!

Khmer: ស្ទូចត្រីសម្រាប់សុខភាពល្អក្នុងស្ទឹងឌូវ៉មមីស្ស តោះស្ទូចត្រីសាលម៉ុន!

Vietnamese: Câu cá an toàn trên sông Duwamish: Hãy câu cá hồi!

If you plan to go out fishing, please remember to follow the guidance for responsible fishing during COVID-19 times and check for updates at WDFW.

Since 2017, Public Health – Seattle and King County have collaborated with the Community Health Advocates to develop culturally appropriate health promotion tools around safe seafood consumption for the US EPA’s Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund site. Our goal is to protect the health of fishing communities, especially pregnant women, nursing moms and young children, from the contaminated resident seafood. Our program recently received a 2020 Model Practice Award from the National Association of County and City Health Officials. For more information: www.kingcounty.gov/duwamish-fishing

Originally published July 9, 2020.