Seafood guides tend to focus either on species that should be avoided for reasons related to environmental health (overfishing) or species that should be avoided for reasons related to human health (their flesh is contaminated with chemicals). Food and Water Watch, an environmental group based in Washington, D. C., publishes a useful guide that takes both concerns into account.
My favorite feature is the annual "Dirty Dozen" list, a rogues' gallery of species that fail on at least two counts. This year's do-not-eat roster includes:
• Imported catfish—may be contaminated with bacteria and drug residues
• Caviar from wild-caught sturgeon—the fish are endangered
• Atlantic cod—collapsed stocks and fishing gear that results in high catches of unintended species
• American eel—high concentration of toxins
• Atlantic flounder, sole, and halibut—overfishing
• Imported king crab—from Russian waters, where it is overfished
• Imported shrimp—from countries with lax regulations
• Farmed salmon—PCBs, pesticides, antibiotics; farmed in an environmentally harmful manner
• Chilean seabass—high mercury levels, much of it illegally caught
• Shark—high mercury levels (also overfished, though FWW doesn't mention this)
• Atlantic bluefin tuna—very high PCB and mercury levels; endangered
To read the rest of this story, please go to: The Atlantic.