Best Fish For Your Health And The Sea's

Fish would be the ideal healthy meal, rich as it is in protein and the omega 3 fatty acids that help prevent heart disease, were it not so often contaminated with industrial toxins or unsustainably harvested. Mercury, which can harm developing brains, plagues saltwater predators such as tilefish, swordfish and tuna (see list below). A study in the April Environmental Health Perspectives found that 89 percent of fish-eating subjects had blood mercury levels above the safety threshold of 5 micrograms per liter; several showed symptoms of mercury poisoning, such as fatigue, decreased memory and joint pain.

Pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children must be most careful to avoid mercury, and should skip some species entirely while eating others only once a month. Yet, according to Jane Houlihan, research director at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), “the FDA is providing women with inadequate advice on mercury levels in fish these days.” Houlihan adds that the FDA has done an uneven job of testing, and recommends the EPA’s more stringent set of mercury standards, which include where fish are caught.

Nor are farmed fish necessarily safer: A 2002 study showed that farmed salmon have consistently higher levels of PCBs (nervous-system toxins), organochlorine pesticides and PBDEs (see “Health News,” p. 6) than their wild cousins. Contamination among freshwater species comes in the form of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as dioxins, a known carcinogen, as well as PCBs. Our list, below, gives the best and worst fish choices for human health and the environment.

Yes Fish (Low mercury, not overfished or farmed destructively)

Abalone (farmed), anchovies, catfish (U.S. farmed), caviar (U.S. or French farmed), clams (farmed), crawfish, herring, hoki, rainbow trout (farmed), salmon (wild Alaskan), sardines, squid (Pacific), striped bass (farmed), sturgeon (farmed).

Sometimes Fish (Recovering populations and/or moderate mercury [M]; limit to once/month)

Arctic char (low mercury in sea-run char), blue crab (M, Gulf Coast), blue mussel (M), dungeness crab (M) , king crab (Alaskan), snow crab, cod (M, Pacific), flounder (Pacific), halibut (M, Alaskan), mahimahi (M), Eastern oyster (M), pollack (M), sablefish/black cod (M, bycatch), salmon (wild Pacific), sanddabs (a West Coast mini-flatfish; trawling has damaged habitat), scallops—(habitat damage), sole (Pacific), tilapia (farmed), tuna (M, canned).

No Fish (Overfished, farmed destructively, high bycatch or moderate to high mercury)

Bluefin tuna, caviar (Russian or Iranian from Caspian Sea), Chilean seabass (Patagonian toothfish), cod (Atlantic), king crab (imported), flounder (Atlantic), Great Lakes salmon, groupers, haddock, halibut (Atlantic), king mackerel, marlin, monkfish, orange roughy, oysters (Gulf Coast), pike, salmon (farmed or “Atlantic”), sharks, shrimp (every pound means 3 to 15 pounds of bycatch!), skate, snappers, soles (Atlantic), swordfish, tilefish (a.k.a. golden bass, golden snapper).

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WHAT YOU CAN DO

• If concerned about your exposures, stop eating moderate-to-high-mercury fish for a few months; after they did so, study participants’ blood levels returned to normal.

• Urge the FDA to make testing a priority: 888-SAFE FOOD, www.fda.gov.

• For contaminants, see ewg.org, epa.gov/mercury/fish.htm and check local advisories for polluted fish (www.map1.epa.gov).

• To reduce mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants, urge your congressional representatives to support Senator Jefford’s Clean Power Act. 202-224-3121, www.senate.gov, www.house.gov.