Pennsylvania

Trout fishing in Pennsylvania: Health benefits and consumption warnings

Published

11 months ago

March 27, 2025

Press Room

Trout fishing in Pennsylvania: Health benefits and consumption warnings

The 3.2 million trout that the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is stocking for 2025 aren’t there for show.

“We do want people to catch these fish and take them home and eat them,” commission spokesman Michael Parker said.

Rainbow trout — three out of every four trout stocked in Pennsylvania this year is a rainbow — are a good protein source rich in fatty acids critical for heart health plus immunity-boosting vitamins, according to seafoodwatch.org.

And for anglers hitting the waterways Saturday for Pennsylvania’s Mentored Youth Trout Day or the regular season opener April 5, trout are easy to clean and cook in a variety of ways — including oven-baked, pan-fried and grilled.

Fish, however, are known to bioaccumulate contaminants present in the environment. That’s why Fish and Boat works with the state Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Health to update fish consumption advisories.

For 2025, only one waterway has been added to the list: Darby Creek from Route 13, also known as MacDade Boulevard, downstream to the Delaware River in Delaware and Philadelphia counties. The word there is “Do Not Eat,” and it affects all species, based on advisories from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA manages a Superfund site called the Lower Darby Creek Area due to landfills that operated in the 1950s to ‘70s that “contaminated soil, groundwater and fish tissue with hazardous chemicals,” according to the site’s profile. The aquatic environments portion of the site’s management practices states a “risk assessment identified unacceptable human health risks from exposure to sediment contamination as well as consumption of fish and snapping turtles.”

The full list of Pennsylvania waterways subject to fish consumption advisories is included in the Pennsylvania Fishing Summary available with the purchase of a fishing license. The list also is excerpted in a .pdf available from the DEP’s website at pa.gov. This excerpt is included below for viewing on some devices. (Find New Jersey’s fish consumption advisories at dep.nj.gov.)

“Pennsylvania has issued a general, statewide health advisory for recreationally caught sport fish: eat no more than one meal (1/2 pound) per week of sport fish caught in the state’s waterways,” the advisory section states. “This general advice was issued to protect against eating large amounts of fish that have not been tested or that may contain unidentified contaminants.”

John Mihulec, of Freemansburg, holds a rainbow trout landed in the Monocacy Creek in Bethlehem during the opening day of trout fishing season March 29, 2014.Matt Smith File Photo | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Stocked trout from Fish and Boat’s state fish hatcheries also “are subject to the blanket one-meal-per-week consumption advisory that applies to recreationally caught sport fish in Pennsylvania,” according to the commission.

Fish and Boat does not stock trout in areas under a do-not-eat advisory, the commission’s Parker said. That’s the case, for example, with Neshaminy Creek in Montgomery and Bucks counties. State officials in October 2021 warned anglers not to eat any species of fish from the Neshaminy Creek basin “due to extremely high levels of Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS).” PFOS, like perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), is a chemical in the Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) family.

Widely used in consumer, commercial, and industrial products since the 1950s, PFAS are so persistent in the environment that they’re referred to as forever chemicals. Their effects on human health continue to be studied, but evidence suggests they may cause cancer, among other problems, according to a Department of Health PFAS fact sheet.

“That was a big loss for anglers,” Parker said of the end to stocking the Neshaminy.

Generally speaking, for an angler looking for a meal rather than catch-and-release recreation, the stocked trout is a different animal than, say, a largemouth or smallmouth bass that lives its life from egg to adulthood in the wild.

A native fish can bioaccumulate contaminants such as mercury or PCBs.

Trout stocked from the state’s regulated hatcheries are likely only to be around for a brief period before they’re caught by anglers or wildlife, or fall victim to the warming waters of summer.

“The goal is people pay for the opportunity to catch these trout and take them home, and eating them is a big part of that,” Parker said.

“It’s just like any other food, you just want to make sure: everything in moderation,” he continued. “And if you are going to plan on eating a lot of fish this year, just be aware of these long-standing advisories.”

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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.

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Pennsylvania

Pa. man found guilty of raping teen girl who he took to Mexico

Published

7 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Pa. man found guilty of raping teen girl who he took to Mexico

A Pennsylvania man was found guilty of repeatedly raping his daughter’s best friend over a three-year span before fleeing with the teen to Mexico.

On Thursday, March 5, 2026, Kevin Esterly, 53, of Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania, was convicted on all counts of rape, statutory sexual assault, involuntary sexual intercourse and endangering the welfare of children.

Esterly shook his head as the verdict was read but said nothing in the courtroom.

Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673.

Esterly’s trial began on Tuesday, March 3, after a judge denied his pretrial motion for the charges against him to be dismissed and for the Lehigh County District Attorney to be removed as a prosecutor in the case.

Both Esterly and his victim testified on Wednesday, March 4.

The victim — who is now 24-years-old — told the courtroom that she met Esterly and his family while attending church as a child and became best friends with one of his daughters. Esterly was a youth leader and elder at the church at the time. The victim said Esterly also coached her soccer team.

The victim said she became so close to Esterly’s family that she called his wife “mom” and eventually spent almost every weekend at their home in Lowhill Township, Pennsylvania. She also said she vacationed with them in New York state and Ocean City, Maryland.

The victim said Esterly first sexually assaulted her in August 2015 when she was 13-years-old after he gave her alcohol during a family birthday party.

“I was scared. Frozen in fear,” the woman told the courtroom on Wednesday. “I pretended I was sleeping.”

The woman accused Esterly of sexually assaulting her almost every time she slept over at his home. She told the courtroom she eventually became addicted to alcohol and drugs, which Esterly gave her in exchange for sex. According to the woman, Esterly gave her cocaine and methamphetamine to keep her awake during school because she “would be up with him all night.”

The woman said Esterly continued to sexually assault her until he was confronted by his wife in 2017. Esterly’s wife then threw him out of the house, according to the victim. She said Esterly continued to sexually assault her over the next year.

Esterly was later arrested and then sentenced to prison after federal agents found him with the victim in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, in 2018. She was 16-years-old at the time.

The woman said she moved on and went to college after Esterly’s sentencing though she still struggled with drug addiction. She said she sought counseling in February 2025. She told the courtroom she received a message from Esterly on LinkedIn that same month in which he apologized for “failing you as a person I was supposed to be for you.” At that point Esterly had been released from prison.

The woman said she had not told anyone about her relationship with Esterly up to that point and replied to him, “I live with our secret every day as I promised. I would appreciate an apology.”

The woman told the courtroom that Esterly responded by writing, “I hope one day you can forgive me. Nobody knows I reached out to you. That is the best for both of us.”

On Feb. 21, 2025, Allentown Police received a report of Esterly’s sexual assaults which led to the new charges being filed against him. He was arrested in West Virginia in June 2025 after two police pursuits. He was then extradited to Pennsylvania.

The victim told the courtroom on Wednesday that she kept quiet about Esterly’s abuse for years because she “was afraid to speak,” and felt “dirty and ashamed.”

“I wasn’t ready to tell anyone,” she said. “He was a father figure in my life. I loved him.”

The woman also said she didn’t want to hurt Esterly’s daughter who was her best friend.

When the District Attorney asked her why she was “here today,” she replied by saying, “I want to tell the truth. I want to be set free.”

The woman ended her testimony by saying, “I don’t want to live with this secret anymore.”

After her testimony, Esterly took the stand for 45 minutes, denied all of the accusations against him and accused the woman of lying.

Closing arguments then took place Thursday morning. It then took an hour for the jury of seven women and five men to reach their verdict.

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Pennsylvania

3 dead in apparent murder-suicide spanning from Pennsylvania to Illinois, police say

Published

19 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

3 dead in apparent murder-suicide spanning from Pennsylvania to Illinois, police say

Madeline Bartos,

Jennifer Borrasso

Updated on: March 5, 2026 / 2:16 AM EST
/ CBS Pittsburgh

Two women are dead in Pennsylvania and a man is dead in Illinois after an apparent murder-suicide, police said on Wednesday.

According to a report from the Pennsylvania State Police, the investigation began in Hillside, Illinois, when police there were dispatched after a man reported two women dead in Jackson Township, Pennsylvania. Police said that when officers got to Hillside, about 15 miles west of Chicago, they found that the man had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

After identifying him, troopers said Hillside officers contacted police from Jackson Township to request a welfare check at the man’s home on Dior Drive, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Map shows distance from Hillside, Illinois, to Zelienople, Pennsylvania

KDKA

Police said officers used forced entry to get into the home and found two women dead from apparent gunshot wounds. It’s believed the two women were family members of the man who died by suicide in Illinois, investigators said.

Pennsylvania State Police said they’ve assumed control of the case and are “actively investigating” what happened surrounding the three deaths.

Police didn’t release any names, saying the process of formal identification and notification of next of kin hasn’t been completed. Sources told KDKA that the victims were a husband, wife and their daughter.

“At this time, investigators believe there is no ongoing threat to the public, and law enforcement is not searching for any additional individuals in connection with this incident,” police wrote in the public information release report. “This remains an active and ongoing investigation.”

State police didn’t release any other details on Wednesday but said more information will be made public when it’s available.

“My first reaction was shocked because this is such a close-knit neighborhood, and to think something that horrible could happen here is very tragic because they were such a good family,” neighbor Danielle Sporer said on Wednesday.

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Pennsylvania

Top Pennsylvania 2027 quarterback enrolls into Coatesville (Pa.)

Published

1 day ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Top Pennsylvania 2027 quarterback enrolls into Coatesville (Pa.)

One of the top 2027 Pennsylvania high school quarterbacks from the 2025 season has announced that he’s leaving for a new home.

Per an announcement by Class of 2027 signal caller Mikal Shank Jr., the quarterback has left Harrisburg (Pa.) and is now at Coatesville (Pa.) for his senior season. Shank Jr. last season started 14 games for the Cougars and is arguably one of the state’s top returning players behind center heading into the 2026 campaign.