Mercury is the most common reason states advise limits on eating freshwater fish. It enters lakes from the air and from the watershed, is converted by bacteria into a form that accumulates in living tissue, and concentrates up the food chain, so the largest, oldest predators carry the most. A lake can have excellent water quality and still produce fish with meaningful mercury levels, because the two are measured in different places.

This test measures mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and lead in the flesh of a fish caught from your lake. You catch and fillet the fish, record its species, size, and where it came from, and ship the sample to an accredited laboratory.

What this test does and does not decide. Lake Pulse sells tests that measure what is in the fish. We do not decide whether you can eat it. Fish consumption advice is issued by state health and natural resource agencies, which set advice by species, by size, and by who is eating, and their advisory for your lake stands regardless of what a single fillet shows. Check your state advisory first, and treat these results as additional information alongside it, never as a replacement for it.

One of three fish tissue tests. Each measures a different group of contaminants in the flesh of fish caught from your lake.

• Fish Tissue Metals Test — mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and lead
• Fish Tissue PFAS Test — PFAS, including PFOS
• Fish Tissue Pesticide Screen — a broad screen of pesticide residues