Photo by izik.

The Anacostia River is in bad shape. Not that it’s stopping people from eating catfish they catch in its waters!

WAMU reports that despite the protestations of the District Department of the Environment, fishers are still showing up to fish the Anacostia everyday. DDOE is planning on kicking off a new awareness program in June — aimed at people who don’t know about the advisories regarding consuming fish caught in both the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers because they don’t speak English or have access to the Internet. But they’ll be fighting an uphill battle trying to dissuade some fishers, one of which caught a 60-pounder in the River once and depends on the river for a main source of sustenance:

[D.C. resident Bobby] Jones has been out of work for five years. So fishing for catfish isn’t just a pastime. It’s a big part of his diet.

“I just bake them and put a little hot sauce on them. And they’re real good,” he says.

But Anacostia Riverkeeper Dottie Yunger, who advocates for clean water, says eating catfish can be dangerous. She says studies show many of the brown bullheaded catfish in the Anacostia have contaminants in their tissues and cancerous lesions on their bodies.

“Will you get immediately sick from eating a fish from the river that might be contaminated? Probably not,” she says. “You may not feel any effect. But there are effects that are happening at the cellular level, at the molecular level. It’s affecting brain development, it’s affecting memory. It’s affecting cognitive skills.”

Jones told WAMU that “he hasn’t become sick yet.” Yes…yet.