If you are missing a large goldfish -- about the size of a personal pizza -- the state has good news for you.

That goldfish was just one of many fish found in the lower Provo River on Thursday. State crews spent the day gathering bugs, algae, fish and water samples to take back to the lab in order to access the health of the river.

And for the first time ever, the tissue of fish from the river will be tested for mercury to determine whether the popular fishing river might be serving more than fish for supper, said Jim Harris of the Utah Division of Water Quality.

But wait. A huge goldfish in Provo River? A rare Utah native, perhaps? Something Dr. Seussian?

Not quite. Abandoned by someone, said state crews. And judging by the size, apparently happy to be living in the river. Emily Bartusek, a state environmental scientist, said it is the biggest goldfish she has ever found in her career -- interesting, but not exactly rewarding.

"It's probably like winning a dollar on a lottery ticket," she said with a laugh.

On a more serious note, the state has redesigned the way it assesses the health of rivers, and is now taking more samples, and using a more scientific method of deciding where to take samples from, so that what they end up with is a representative sample of the population and health of the entire river.

While it will take a year to analyze all the samples collected to determine if the river is healthy or polluted, the state expects to announce the results of the mercury tests in January or February, said Ben Brown, environmental scientist.

As they worked on Thursday, state crews had some lookie-loos. Toward the end of their work, crews used stun guns to shock fish, which then floated to the top of the water, making it easy for crews to count them, take some measurements, and release most of them. Some residents stopped to say -- perhaps only partially joking -- that they wanted to know where to buy the kind of electric fishing pole crews were using.

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