Women under 50 and children under 15 should not eat any fish from the Hudson River, including striped bass. Women who eat highly contaminated fish and become pregnant may have an increased risk of having children who are slower to develop and learn. Some contaminants may be passed on to infants in mother's milk.

Whether you can safely eat fish from the Hudson River depends heavily on your age, health status, and the specific section of the river. The New York State Department of Health generally advises that women under 50 and children under 15 should not eat any fish caught in any part of the Hudson River due to high levels of PCBs. For the "general population" (men over 15 and women over 50), the advice varies by region: in the Mid-Hudson section, you are limited to only one meal per month of specific species like yellow perch or alewife. In the Upper Hudson (between Hudson Falls and Troy), a "catch and release" policy is strictly enforced because the fish can have thousands of times more PCBs than the water. If you do choose to eat your catch, you should remove the skin and all visible fat before cooking and use methods like grilling or broiling so the fat drips away, which can reduce PCB levels by nearly half.