OSCODA (WWJ) - It's a stern warning from state officials now that hunting season is underway -- doesn't matter if you hunt deer, crayfish, muskrat or fish, don't eat any animal hunted from a Northern Michigan marsh.
The Michigan Departments of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and Natural Resources (MDNR) issued a reminder for hunters that catch any animals within three miles of Clark’s Marsh in Oscoda Township in Iosco County not to put them on their dinner plate.
A Do Not Eat deer advisory remains in effect due to various per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) contamination, including perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), which may have entered animals' liver and muscle tissue.
The finding is included in the 2021 report PFAS levels in Michigan deer from the Oscoda area, Iosco County.
Clark's Marsh sits on the grounds of the decommissioned Wurtsmith Air Force Base. According to reports, the water tested at least 5,000 ppt for total PFAS due to the contamination at the former base.
According to state officials, the Do Not Eat advisory goes beyond deer and includes all fish and aquatic or semi-aquatic wildlife taken from Clark’s Marsh, including fish, aquatic and semi-aquatic mammals (including muskrats), amphibians (including frogs), mollusks (including snails), reptiles (including turtles), and arthropods (including crayfish).
There are three separate health advisories currently in effect for Clark’s Marsh:
• A Do Not Eat fish advisory that has remained in effect since 2012.
• A Do Not Eat deer advisory issued in 2018, updated in 2019 and again in 2021. The 2021 update shrank the five-mile advisory area to a three-mile advisory area.
• A Do Not Eat resident aquatic and semi-aquatic wildlife advisory that has been in effect since 2019.
To see the boundaries of the Do Not Eat deer advisory, see a map of the Do Not Eat deer advisory area.
"MDHHS continues to recommend people do not eat organs from any fish, deer or other wild game in the state because many chemicals, including PFAS, can accumulate in the organs of wildlife," state officials said.
For more information about PFAS, visit Michigan.gov/PFASResponse.
For more information about fish and wild game consumption, visit Michigan.gov/EatSafeGame.