What Fish Are Safe To Eat?
Selected Lists and Resources

Source:
Contaminated Fish: How many meals are safe to eat per month?

Fish is generally healthy to eat, but you should eat some types infrequently, if at all. This chart lists the most contaminated fish, and how much can safely be eaten each month (assuming no other contaminated fish is consumed). The advice is based on EPA guidance and the latest mercury and PCB data. See the green sections [in the chart] for safer seafood options. [...]

These fish are also safe to eat at least once per week: anchovies, clams, Dungeness crab, king crab (U.S.), snow crab, Pacific cod, crawfish (U.S.), Atlantic herring (Canada/U.S.), spiny lobster (Australia/Baja/U.S.), Atlantic mackerel, blue mussels, farmed oysters, Alaska pollock, canned pink/sockeye salmon, sardines, scallops, shrimp (Canada/U.S.), squid, tilapia (Latin America/U.S.). [...]

• Best & Worst Choices
• Seafood Pocket Guide
  Download and print.
• Sushi Selector
• Sushi Pocket Guide
  Download and print.
• Mobile Phone Version
• Fish Oil Supplements

Greenpeace

On 16 June 2008, Greenpeace released a 60-page report entitled Out of Stock: Supermarkets and the Future of Seafood, in which authors Beth Hunter and Sarah King examine the sustainability of fish and seafood stocks; they argue in favor of responsible procurement to preserve biodiversity and maintain the future viability of the seafood industry. They present a Red List of 15 species or groups of species so reduced in numbers that they are no longer commercially viable and should not be eaten or sold.

Oceans contain the planet's most diverse ecosystems and are home to an estimated 90 per cent of the Earth's living organisms, many of which are essential to human survival. Earth's oceans are in peril because global fishing operations take 2.5 times more fish and seafood than is sustainable. Ninety per cent of large, commercially valuable species such as cod, tuna and swordfish have vanished from the oceans, and 27 million tonnes of marine life are caught incidentally and thrown overboard dead or dying each year.¹

The 15 Red List species or groups of species include the following:

• Atlantic cod
• Atlantic haddock (scrod)
• Atlantic halibut
• Atlantic salmon (farmed)
• Atlantic sea scallops
• Chilean seabass
• Greenland halibut (turbot)
• Hard shell clams (Arctic surf clams)
• New Zealand hoki (blue grenadier)
• Orange roughy
• Sharks
• Skates and rays
• Swordfish
• Tropical shrimps & prawns
• Tuna—bluefin, yellowfin, bigeye

Their second report, Out of Stock, Out of Excuses: Ranking retailers on seafood sustainability, was released on 22 May 2009; it ranked major supermarket chains on the basis of seven criteria deemed important fostering sustainability by stopping the commercial sale of Red List species. The report documented the severe threat to the sustainability of seafood and underscored the responsibility of Canadian supermarkets to help protect vulnerable fish stocks.

On 2 June 2010, Greenpeace released their 2010 edition, entitled Taking Stock: Ranking supermarkets on seafood sustainability. There has been some progress, they report, but not nearly enough.

While a sea change is beginning behind seafood counters, a walk through most supermarkets still reveals an array of overfished, destructively fished or farmed, and in many cases illegally sourced seafood. And this includes stores of even our top ranked chains. This is why Greenpeace is urging retailers to keep up the momentum and act faster to remove Redlist seafood from sale, adopt policies to avoid having such products line their shelves in the future, communicate sustainability requirements to their suppliers, and help customers adjust their tastes – choosing sustainable seafood rather than more popular but unsustainable options.