Someone is documenting and eating every fish he catches in Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario, though clean for swimming in most areas, still holds a somewhat iffy reputation when it comes to cleanliness, but that isn't deterring one Ontario student, who is creating a series showing how he cooks and consumes the fish he catches in the lake.
"Eating out of Lake Ontario until I get sick," 21-year-old Ontario university student Quinn Rooney begins a series of videos, now eight installments long, that have been making waves on social media lately.
It's a series that's simple enough in concept: Rooney sets out on the lake from the shores of Kingston, ON, before catching, cooking and consuming whatever ends up on his line. Still, his series has been enough to turn the stomachs of more than a few viewers, while piquing the curiosity of others.
Born in South Korea and moving to Kingston with his family at the age of seven, Rooney tells blogTO that fishing has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember; his earliest memories are populated with vignettes of him and his parents wading through Korean mountain streams and catching minnows and waterbugs with a tiny dip net.
Upon moving to Canada, he upgraded to reel fishing. His first "catch-and-cook," he tells blogTO, was a bluegill from his local canal system.
"After that experience, I quickly realized how fun and rewarding it is to fish for your own meal and be able to sustain yourself with what's out there in nature," he says.
Struck by the relative lack of catch-and-cook content coming out of Lake Ontario, given its size, Rooney decided to take matters into his own hands in an effort to remediate the lake's reputation for being unclean.
The heebie-jeebies many Ontario residents feel at the prospect of consuming anything reeled in from the depths of Lake Ontario aren't necessarily unfounded. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, massive amounts of sewage and industrial waste were pumped into the lake, leading to severe pollution and localized toxic zones that peaked around the mid-20th century.
Still, in more recent decades, great strides have been taken to restore the lake's water quality, which is why we can now safely swim at Toronto beaches without the fear of emerging with a nasty flesh-eating bacteria or chemical burns, though factors like climate change, microplastic pollution and stormwater runoff continue to pose a serious risk to the lake's health.
It's a reality that Rooney was well aware of when he first endeavoured to begin consuming the lake's aquatic creatures.
"I definitely had my doubts and concerns regarding the health risks from eating out of Lake Ontario, as it holds a long reputation of being considered a giant aquatic trash bin for microplastics and various harmful chemicals," Rooney tells blogTO, however, "Many may not know but most Lake Ontario fish are now generally 'safe' to eat but you must follow strict guidelines on consumption amounts."
He admits that, even within the guidelines, eating fish from Lake Ontario still carries health risks, but thanks to his admittedly "experimental and a bit careless" attitude, he dove into his journey head first.
Primarily fishing from the shores of Kingston and the Bay of Quinte, Rooney can proudly say he hasn't yet experienced any negative impacts from these local additions to his diet, and has, on the flip side, gained some particularly memorable moments.
"My most memorable experience since starting has definitely been catching and cooking the invasive Round Goby fish that infests Lake Ontario and the other Great Lakes," Rooney tells blogTO.
"I had never seen a Round Goby catch and cook on social media before, and I was curious about how they actually tasted, so I decided to do it and make a video out of it and was pleasantly surprised at how good the meat tasted!"
Next up, Rooney hopes to take his show on the road to see what he can catch off the shores of Toronto and Hamilton.
While Rooney hasn't gotten sick from eating the fish in the lake yet, he notes that it may be worthwhile for any other aspiring anglers to do as he says, not as he does, and avoid cooking up their catches.
"Just leave it up to me, especially if you have cleaner lakes to eat fish out of," he laughs.
Should you attempt catching and cooking local fish for yourself — which, I cannot stress enough, I don't recommend — be sure to check your area's guidelines for fishing and safe consumption first.
You can keep up with Rooney's journey by following him on Instagram at @reelinrooney.
Quinn Rooney
