It's more a "I'm a manly dude who is good at catching fish! I enjoy leisure time on lakes and I have a boat!" than a promise that they'll eat the fish. At least half the time it's catch and release fishing anyway.
I know a fair amount of girls from Minnesota and Oregon who would like that because they're into fishing themselves. They grew up fishing with their fathers.
Yeah, where I used to live up north, even very remote lakes were poisoned with mercury said to be from coal burning in China. People were advised to not eat fish from the lake more than a few times a week or once a week for certain fish. So... tons of people just ignore that or don't even know about it because they either don't really understand or believe it, have poor information sources, enjoy the experience, or it's all they can afford.
Put the fish down. (lemmy.world)