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[HAMMERING] LEIF ENGER: Resorter Earl [? Heverly ?] is working fast these last few days before the opener trying to finish his new recreation room before the guests arrive. [? Heverly ?] bought Pine Acres Resort North of Grand Rapids just over two years ago, and says he's expecting his best season so far. The fact that Prairie Lake, surrounded by pine trees and dotted with flocks of migrating ducks, is also listed in a health department advisory for mercury, apparently, hasn't hurt the business.

EARL: You know, it's something that you have to consider ultimately. But the people that generally know and that consume and eat the fish are not really concerned with it.

LEIF ENGER: Prairie Lake is one of 262 listed in the 1989 edition of the Minnesota Fish Consumption Advisory, newly published by the Department of Health. It's designed to tell anglers which lakes and rivers contain mercury, PCBs or dioxin, and which fish from those waters they can still safely eat. The advisory regularly provokes criticism from two distinct groups some proponents of tourism who say it scares potential visitors away and environmentalists who say it doesn't do nearly enough to warn sport fishing enthusiasts.

GARY PAYNE: As testing programs go, it's a farce.

LEIF ENGER: Gary Payne is a Brainerd environmentalist and teacher who has studied testing efforts in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

GARY PAYNE: Some of the major fishing lakes have not been tested as thoroughly as they should have. And certainly not for as many contaminants as they should have. We don't even have a good baseline data file on most of the major fishing lakes.

LEIF ENGER: One reason for the lack of information has been the lack of funds needed to gather it. About $80,000 a year is currently spent to test fish for contaminants, and since it costs in the range of $400 to test one fish for PCBs, the money doesn't go very far. This year, the Department of natural resources has included close to $500,000 in its rim budget proposal to monitor more waters. But with lawmakers making wide cuts in that proposal, a big jump in fish testing is unlikely.

GARY PAYNE: There is a fear about digging into this too much. It seems like where the more you sample, the more contaminants you find.

LEIF ENGER: Jack Skripek is chief of ecological services for the DNR's Fish & Wildlife Division. He says that while looking for fish contamination is politically unpopular in a state that relies so heavily on tourism, it's an issue that shouldn't be ignored.

JACK SKRIPEK: I suspect that with additional sampling, we'll find out that certain contaminants are fairly widespread. There's quite a bit of evidence that a lot of contaminants come down in the rain. The question comes down as to what is the health significance of those contaminants.

LEIF ENGER: Skripek is referring to a nearly completed study by Environmental Protection Agency researcher Gary Glass of Duluth. Glass's research shows that mercury, a pollutant produced by burning fossil fuels, is falling in potentially dangerous levels in Northern Minnesota. But DFL Senator Bob Lessard of International Falls, who chairs the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee and runs a fishing guide service during the summer months, says he's not convinced there's a problem.

BOB LESSARD: Mercury is a natural substance. They say it's coming from rain, but I don't know about that. I do know it's a natural substance. Look at all those thousands of lakes up in Canada that have never been monitored, which I'm very familiar with, or never will be monitored and you're going up there needing these fish. And some of these people, I'm sure, are still living in their 80s and 90s.

ANNOUNCER: From the 1,000 Grand Lakes area, This is WNAV Travel Information Radio, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, where you'll find four seasons of enjoyment and 1.2 million acres of grand beauty.

LEIF ENGER: At the Visitors & Convention Bureau headquarters in Grand Rapids, a piped-in radio broadcast tells vacationers about local attractions and upcoming events. Tourism is the second largest business in the area, next to the wood products industry. Bureau Executive Vice President Jerry Galles says that far from scaring people away, the consumption advisory has probably helped tourism here, because he says, people have come to trust the state to tell them if there's a problem.

JERRY GALES: We process about 12,000 to, say, 15,000 inquiries a year, but not one inquiry, not one concern from a tourist that's planning to come this year. And probably that's due in no small part to the fact that, I think our state does a good job insofar as identifying what the levels would be and what the safeguards should be.

LEIF ENGER: Some area resorters also give credit to the advisory, but many say it's time to intensify the lookout for contaminants in fish. Earl [? Heverly ?] at Pine Acres Resort says he doesn't know whether it's getting riskier to fish in Minnesota, but it might be worth the price to find out.

EARL: So many people they say, well, I'm only going to be here another 10 years and then I'm going on to the big one in the sky. But you have to think about your children and wildlife. And we want to be able to somebody 50 years from now and say, look at the loons and look at the ducks. So it's something that we have to be concerned with.

LEIF ENGER: Resort owner Earl [? Heverly. ?] This is Leif Enger.