Fish To Eat Always, Never, and Sometimes

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Salmon. Industrially farmed salmon (the market name is generally Atlantic salmon) is spreading sea lice to wild stocks, contaminating coastal environments. It can also be very bad for you. Favor sustainably fished wild Alaska salmon, particularly sockeye, coho, and pink. In a pinch, organically farmed salmon is a better alternative to industrially farmed.

Scallops. Farmed scallops, generally sold as bay scallops from Asia and South America, are generally a good choice. Atlantic scallops (sold as giant scallops) are not overfished, but they are dredged, which damages the seafloor.

Shrimp. Be careful eating imported shrimp. If it is farmed, it is often treated with chemicals and antibiotics, and intensive shrimp ponds are polluting some of the world’s poorest countries. If it is wild-caught with trawls, bycatch is enormous. Wild-caught northern shrimp, pink shrimp, and spot prawn from Canada and northern U.S. waters are the only consistently good choices.

Snapper. Avoid overfished red snapper, which accounts for half of the snapper landed in the United States, and is mostly caught in the Gulf of Mexico. Stocks of yellowtail snapper on the market, which is hook-and-line-fished, are in better shape.

Tilapia. Native to the Nile, this bland- fleshed fish is fed vegetable protein, so farming it does not diminish the world’s stock of animal protein. However, tilapia raised in Asia is treated with antibiotics, pesticides, and carbon monoxide. Favor tilapia raised in the Americas, where standards are higher.

Excerpted from Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood by Taras Grescoe; www.tarasgrescoe.com. Copyright © 2008 by Taras Grescoe. Reprinted with permission of Bloomsbury USA.

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