# Are fish caught in the River Thames in England safe to eat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 11, 2006, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239 "2006-08-11T01:46:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/1 "2006-08-11T01:46:55Z")
Just curious. [Wiki doesn’t say.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Thames) Are creatures from the River Thames (pronounced “Tims” I think) safely edible? Interesting name origin BTW > [@](#): > > Name origin > The river’s name appears always to have been pronounced with a simple “t” at the beginning; the Middle English spelling was typically Temese and Latin Tamesis. The “th” lends an air of Greek to the name and was added during the Renaissance, possibly to reflect or support a belief that the name was derived from River Thyamis in the Epirus region of Greece, whence early Celtic tribes are thought to have migrated. However, most scholars now believe Temese and Tamesis come from Celtic (Brythonic) Tamesa, perhaps meaning “the dark one”. > > But Rickett & Smith (The Place-Names of Roman Britain) reported that it is more probably based upon Proto-Indo-European ta- with a meaning “to flow”. This view was first postulated by Nacolaisen in 1957. There are a large number of river names commencing with this element, which can be divided into three groups (see also River Isis). > > The name Isis, given to the part of the river running through Oxford, may have come from the Egyptian river god of that name but is believed to be a contraction of Tamesis, the Latin (or pre-Roman Celtic) name. It may be that the name Isis was a fanciful and neo-classical one, given by the university population as a type of pet name. The actual derivation is obscure, so conjecture prevails. > > Richard Coates has recently suggested that the river was called the Thames upriver where it was narrower, and Plowonida down river where it was too wide to ford. This gave the name to a settlement on its banks, which became known as Londinium from the original root Plowonida derived from pre-celtic Old European ‘plew’ and ‘nejd,’ meaning something like the flowing river or the wide flowing unfordable river.[2] ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/2 "2006-08-11T02:30:44Z")
I wouldn’t eat anything that swam in the Thames. Yuck. I think it’s pronounced “tems,” BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/3 "2006-08-11T02:31:32Z")
[QUOTE=EJsGirl] I think it’s pronounced “tems,” BTW. [/QUOTE] It is “tems” (at least to my accent). ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/4 "2006-08-11T03:04:57Z")
I’ve eaten fish caught in the Thames, but from the upper reaches (upriver from Oxford). It’s just a small river near the source, with no upstream industry. Why **wouldn’t** you eat fish from there? Some London restaurants currently seem to think [it’s OK](http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/fish-restaurants-in-london_index.html): > [@](#): > > Whilst London is not right by the coast it boasts many spectacular food markets such as Borough Market, which supply many of the fish restaurants in the capital and some innovative London restaurants are even including fish from the Thames on their menus. [Note that it doesn’t identify the restuarants, or say _in which stretch_ of the Thames the fish are caught.] ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/5 "2006-08-11T03:15:00Z")
[Here ya go](http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/experts/carolineroux/story/0,,1778130,00.html): > [@](#): > > Konstam, a new restaurant in King’s Cross, London, has received a lot of publicity thanks to its policy of sourcing only produce grown within the M25. (Who’d have thought carrots were harvested on Brick Lane?) But if the idea of eating fish from the Thames doesn’t overexcite you, perhaps the fact that Konstam boasts Thomas Heatherwick’s first interior will. [The [M25](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M25_motorway) is a ring road around London, similar to the [Beltway](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Beltway) encircling Washington, DC.] ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/6 "2006-08-11T05:19:25Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] It is “tems” (at least to my accent). [/QUOTE] To most Americans, there’s a lot of “i” in there, coming from most English. Then again, I can’t understand what your vendetta is against the letter “r”. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/7 "2006-08-11T06:53:12Z")
[QUOTE=Antonius Block] I’ve eaten fish caught in the Thames, but from the upper reaches (upriver from Oxford). It’s just a small river near the source, with no upstream industry. Why **wouldn’t** you eat fish from there? [/QUOTE] The Thames is lovely around Abingdon and Henley… doesn’t resemble the huge waterway coursing through London. I’ve heard too many horror stories about the water quality around London, though I’m sure it’s improved. And it’s definitely [tems], my fellow Americans. _River_ Thames, not the Thames River. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/8 "2006-08-11T07:07:36Z")
[QUOTE=Hippy Hollow] The Thames is lovely around Abingdon and Henley… doesn’t resemble the huge waterway coursing through London. I’ve heard too many horror stories about the water quality around London, though I’m sure it’s improved. [/QUOTE] Second that - I’ve been swimming in the Thames at Wallingford, Goring and Abingdon. It’s very clean and teeming with life up there - at Wallingford, I stood in waist-high water upon what I thought was a bed of round pebbles; when I picked on up, I found they were large freshwater mussels. Even in the lower parts, the river has a reputation for being polluted that it no longer deserves - it’s now one of the cleanest rivers in Europe. > **[BBC NEWS | UK | England | London | The Thames cleans up its act](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3499984.stm)** > > The Thames is at its cleanest for decades but Londoners take some convincing. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/9 "2006-08-11T09:26:13Z")
Well, there are lots of cormorants in the Thames round here, and they seem to be pretty healthy on a diet of Thames fish. Bearing in mind the amount of pollution in the North Sea, Channel and so on, I wouldn’t be surprised if even fish from the lower Thames are no worse than seafish. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/10 "2006-08-11T09:30:13Z")
Here in Oxford, where (even more confusingly than “Tems”) the Thames becomes the Isis while it runs through the city, there’s an infestation of North American crayfish that are wrecking the river environment. Fortuitously, they’re damn tasty, and there’s a huge craze going on at the moment to catch the buggers - seafood restaurants and so on have been dipping for them with greasy bacon on a piece of string. My colleague caught 12 the other day and ate them - one was the size of a lobster. He looks OK to me. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/11 "2006-08-11T10:01:17Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Here in Oxford, where (even more confusingly than “Tems”) the Thames becomes the Isis while it runs through the city, there’s an infestation of North American crayfish that are wrecking the river environment. Fortuitously, they’re damn tasty, and there’s a huge craze going on at the moment to catch the buggers - seafood restaurants and so on have been dipping for them with greasy bacon on a piece of string. My colleague caught 12 the other day and ate them - one was the size of a lobster. He looks OK to me. [/QUOTE] Saw these on _Three Men In A Boat_ the other day (three comedians re-enacting Jerome K Jerome’s journey). They look great. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/12 "2006-08-11T10:34:40Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Saw these on _Three Men In A Boat_ the other day (three comedians re-enacting Jerome K Jerome’s journey). They look great. [/QUOTE] Read that book. It’s awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/13 "2006-08-11T11:00:41Z")
[QUOTE=slaphead] Read that book. It’s awesome. [/QUOTE] I sought it out, bought it and took it on holiday with me, intending to read it, but the missus grabbed it and began it before me; she then gave up halfway and put it away somewhere. Grrr. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/14 "2006-08-11T12:18:57Z")
It is safe to eat fish caught by [Marcus Thames](http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=6943). (I have heard his name pronounced “tems” but the website says otherwise). ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/15 "2006-08-11T18:35:28Z")
I heard a salmon was caught in the Thames, a few years ago-they were debating whether ot not to serve it to the Queen-apparently, that was one of the royal perks-they got the 1st salmon caught. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fish-caught-in-the-river-thames-in-england-safe-to-eat/368239/16 "2006-08-11T19:35:54Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Here in Oxford, where (even more confusingly than “Tems”) the Thames becomes the Isis while it runs through the city, there’s an infestation of North American crayfish that are wrecking the river environment. Fortuitously, they’re damn tasty, and there’s a huge craze going on at the moment to catch the buggers - seafood restaurants and so on have been dipping for them with greasy bacon on a piece of string. My colleague caught 12 the other day and ate them - one was the size of a lobster. He looks OK to me. [/QUOTE] That is great. My family came from England to the U.S. a few hundred years ago and we made our way to Lousiana. Now I see that things go both ways. They are good although I can’t imagine an English cooked c-r-a-w-f-is-h. Please use lots of seasoning.