Official State of Iowa Website Here is how you know

Iowa - Caught Fish Are Safe to Eat

Most of Iowa’s streams, rivers and lakes offer safe and high-quality fish that pose little or no threat to human health if eaten. Some limitations may apply for young children and pregnant women. Here’s a Fish Consumption Fact Sheet from the Iowa DNR and the Iowa Dept. of Public Health for more information. 

Find the most up to date list of consumption advisories at www.iowadnr.gov/Environmental-Protection/Water-Quality/Water-Monitoring/Fish-Tissue. New advisories are issued and existing advisories are removed, based on results of annual fish contaminant monitoring in Iowa.

Mississippi River - Pool 19


Pool 19 of the Upper Mississippi River extends 46.3 miles from Lock and Dam 19 in Keokuk to Lock and Dam 18 in Gladstone, IL. Pool 19 contains 30,466 acres of aquatic habitat. The upper roughly half of Pool 19 contains islands, side channels, and backwaters while the lower half is a broad expanse of open water. The upper half of Pool 19 is levied. This training of the river has caused loss and degradation of much of the rivers side channel and backwater habitats. The Skunk River enters the Mississippi River in Pool 19.   The Iowa DNR’s Blackhawk Bottoms Wildlife Management Area is located in the floodplain of Pool 19.

Navigation maps are available from this US Army Corps of Engineers website (link takes you offsite).