Can you eat walleye while pregnant?
In moderationYes, one 4-ounce serving a week. Walleye is a long-lived freshwater predator that builds up mercury, and because most of it is caught locally rather than sold nationally, the FDA's rule for locally caught fish is the one that applies.
Why
The concern is methylmercury, which passes to the baby and affects the developing brain and nervous system. Walleye is not one of the 62 commercial species on the FDA and EPA chart, so the relevant line on that page is the advice for fish caught by family and friends: check the advisory for the water it came from, and if there is no advice available, eat one serving that week and no other fish. State and provincial advisories do publish walleye limits lake by lake, and they tend to tighten for bigger fish, since an older walleye has had years to accumulate mercury. Two practical points flow from that: keep walleye to one serving a week, and favor smaller fish over trophy ones. Cook it to 145 F, until it flakes with a fork.
Safer alternatives
- Yellow perch, an FDA Best Choice with the same flaky bite
- Farmed rainbow trout fillets
- Cod or haddock for a battered fish fry
- Canned light skipjack tuna
Sources
- FDA and EPA https://www.fda.gov/food/consumers/advice-about-eating-fish
- FDA (foodsafety.gov) https://www.foodsafety.gov/food-safety-charts/safe-minimum-internal-temperatures
Every verdict follows our sourcing methodology: official health guidelines only, most cautious position when they differ.
Last reviewed by the pregAI editorial team.
Frequently asked questions
Is restaurant walleye safer than a fish my family caught?
Not really, since it is the same species carrying the same mercury, and on a menu you cannot tell which lake it came from. Keep it to one serving a week either way. With a fish someone caught, you have the advantage of knowing the water, so you can look up that advisory.
Is walleye the same thing as pickerel?
In Canada and the northern US, pickerel usually means walleye, and the one-serving rule covers both names. Be careful with the FDA chart here: the pickerel listed in its Best Choices is a different, smaller fish, so that line does not give walleye a free pass.
Does cooking walleye reduce the mercury?
No. Mercury is bound to the muscle of the fish, so frying, baking or a shore lunch over a fire leaves the amount unchanged, and trimming skin and fat does not help either. Cooking to 145 F is about bacteria and parasites, which is still worth doing.
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