Bad Fish |
Why you shouldn’t eat them |
beluga sturgeon (beluga caviar) |
overfished and unmanaged |
Chilean seabass (Patagonian
toothfish) |
reaches sexual maturity
very slowly; long-line fishing results in numerous albatross
deaths |
clams, dredged |
habitat destruction through
capture |
groupers |
Most species overfished;
in many species, large adults are all males |
lingcod |
OK if from Alaska; overfished
off West Coast |
monkfish |
overfished |
orange roughy (slimehead) |
overfished; reaches sexual
maturity very slowly |
oysters, dredged |
habitat destruction
through capture |
rockfish (Pacific red snapper,
rock cod) |
overfished; slow-growing
|
salmon, Atlantic |
wild stocks overfished;
farmed escapees dilute gene pool; farms pollute oceans; wild
fish populations depleted to feed farmed fish |
scallops, dredged |
habitat destruction through
capture |
sharks (shark cartilage, shark
fin) |
many species overfished; slow-growing; produce
few young |
shrimp and prawns, farmed
|
farming destroys mangrove forests, pollutes
the environment with antibiotics and waste, and wild fish
populations depleted to feed farmed shrimp |
shrimp and prawns, trawled |
trawling damages the seabed, massive bycatch |
swordfish |
severely overfished, bycatch kills loggerhead
sea turtles and albatross |
tuna, bluefin (maguro) |
overfished |
|
Iffy to
eat |
Why you
should think twice before eating them |
crab, Alaskan king |
managed, but becoming overfished |
crab, snow |
managed, but heavily fished |
lobster (clawed, American,
Maine) |
managed, but heavily overfished |
snappers, tropical (huachinango) |
most species overfished;
larvae die in shrimp trawl nets |
sole (petrale, English,
Dover) |
most soles and flatfishes
are caught by trawl fishing, an ecologically destructive practice
that often results in excessive bycatch |
spiny lobsters (crayfish) |
slow growing; overfished
almost everywhere except Cuba and Australia |
|
Good Fish |
Why they’re
OK to eat |
anchovies |
fast-growing; abundant |
bluefish, Atlantic |
fast-growing; abundant |
catfish, farmed |
fast-growing; herbivorous;
raised in ponds |
cod, Pacific |
abundant; well-regulated
fishery |
crayfish (crawfish, crawdad) |
appropriately farmed |
crab, Dungeness |
well-regulated fishery |
herring, sardines |
abundant in certain seas |
halibut, Pacific (Alaskan
halibut) |
abundant; well-regulated
fishery |
hoki |
a well-managed fishery |
mackerel |
fast-growing |
mahi-mahi (dorado, dolphinfish) |
fast-growing; mature
rapidly |
mussels, black and green-lipped
|
can be farmed without
major environmental impact |
oysters, farmed |
may help clean waters;
those raised in nets don’t disturb seabed |
pollock, Pacific (surimi,
krab) |
not overfished but competes
with declining Steller sea lions prawns, white-spotted capture
by trapping has no bycatch |
salmon, wild (Alaskan &
Californian) |
many stocks sensibly
managed |
scallops, farmed |
abundant |
shrimp, pink |
abundant; captured
without environmental damage |
squid (calamari) |
abundant; most die after
one year |
striped bass, farmed |
inland ponds have little
environmental impact |
sturgeon, farmed |
controlled inland rearing
ponds with little environmental impact |
tilapia, farmed |
fast-growing; eat plants
not other fish |
trout, farmed |
raised in freshwater
ponds with little environmental impact |
tuna, Pacific albacore (tombo
tuna) |
well-regulated fishery causes
little or no bycatch. |
tuna, yellowfin (ahi) |
abundant; fairly well-managed
fishery; “dolphin safe” labeling and monitoring program reduces
dolphin kills |