Who doesn’t love a little sushi? But make sure there’s nothing fishy about the seafood you buy, and bite, into.

 

Why: Some seafood is high in environmental contaminants like mercury, and some species are overfished and at risk of becoming endangered. Fisheries worldwide are in decline and since fish are at the top of the ocean's food chain, maintaining healthy populations is necessary to maintain the overall viability of the seas.

 

What to do and where to go: Choosing your seafood carefully not only benefits your health. It supports fisheries and fish farms that are better for ocean wildlife and the environment. "The best thing about sustainable fish?" says Tim O'Shea of Clean Fish, a California supplier of sustainable seafood. "It's a happy bonus that really good quality fish has been handled better and caught or cultivated well."

 

Best Seafood Choices:

Abalone (farmed)

Catfish (US farmed)

Clams, Mussels, Oysters (farmed)

Cod: Pacific (trap or hook & line-caught)

Crab: Dungeness, Snow (Canada)

Halibut: Pacific

Lobster: Spiny (US)

Pollock (wild-caught from AK)*

Sablefish/Black Cod (AK, BC)

Salmon (wild-caught from AK)*

Sardines

Shrimp: Pink (OR)

Spot Prawn (BC)

Striped Bass (farmed)

Tilapia (farmed)

Trout: Rainbow (farmed)

Tuna: Albacore, Bigeye, Yellowfin (troll/pole-caught)

White Seabass

 

Good Alternative Seafood Choices:

Basa/Tra (farmed)

Clams, Oysters† (wild-caught)

Cod: Pacific (longline or trawl-caught)

Crab: King (AK), Snow (US), imitation

Dogfish (BC)†

Lingcod

Lobster: American/Maine

Mahi mahi/Dolphinfish/Dorado

Rockfish (hook & line caught from AK, BC)†

Sablefish/Black Cod (CA, OR, WA)

Salmon (wild-caught from CA, OR, WA)

Sanddabs: Pacific

Scallops: Bay, Sea

Shrimp (US farmed or wild-caught)

Sole: English, Dover, Petrale, Rex

Spot Prawn (US)

Squid

Sturgeon (wild-caught from OR, WA)

Swordfish (US)†

Tuna: Albacore, Bigeye, Yellowfin (longline-caught)†

Tuna: canned light

Tuna: canned white/Albacore†

 

Seafood to Avoid:

Chilean Seabass/Toothfish†

Cod: Atlantic

Crab: King (imported)

Dogfish (US)†

Grenadier/Pacific Roughy

Lobster: Spiny (Caribbean imported)

Monkfish

Orange Roughy†

Rockfish (trawl-caught)†

Salmon (farmed, including Atlantic)†

Sharks†

Shrimp (imported farmed or wild-caught)

Sturgeon†, Caviar (imported wild-caught)

Swordfish (imported)†

Tuna: Bluefin†

 

Notes on the above list:

AK=Alaska; BC=British Columbia; CA=California; OR=Oregon; WA=Washington; US=United States

† Limit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminants (click for more)

* Certified as sustainable to the Marine Stewardship Council standard

(Contaminant information provided by Environmental Defense; recommendations reprinted with the permission of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation.)

 

Find more reading on the subject:

 

Find out even more online:

 

Audubon's Seafood Guide (wallet-sized printouts available)