Alaska's world-famous seafood continues to live up to claims that it is hauled from some of the cleanest waters in the nation and is free from contamination levels anywhere near numbers that should raise public health concerns, according to test results from state and private fish monitoring programs.

That is an important finding for a state trying to market its wild fish to domestic and international markets and compete with farmed fish.

Eating fish hooked in waterways in many parts of the country could mean consuming contaminants, including the neurotoxin methyl mercury, which can lead to brain and nervous system damage in developing fetuses, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Social Services Centers for Disease Control.

National concerns have generated ongoing studies in Alaska to determine the risks of eating fish caught here. So far, those studies are showing contamination levels far below those deemed dangerous to humans by the CDC, the EPA and the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the Alaska Division of Environmental Health.