Avoiding cancer means choosing foods that are safe and free of cancer causing chemicals.
Seafood contaminants include metals (such as mercury), industrial chemicals (PCBs and dioxins) and pesticides (DDT).
Smaller species are eaten by larger ones, resulting in concentrated levels of contaminants in large predatory fish—like swordfish and sharks. Be wise and choose your seafood carefully.
Choose fish that is wild caught, not farm raised, whenever possible.
Avoid swordfish, which concentrates the toxic metal mercury in its flesh.
Sustainable sources of safe seafood include choosing fish that’s fished or farmed in ways that have less impact on the environment.
Make ocean-friendly choices when you eat seafood.
Seafood Watch recommendations show you which seafood items are “Best Choices” or “Good Alternatives,” and which ones you should “Avoid”.
“Best Choices” include fish that have mercury levels below 216 parts per billion (ppb) and provide at least 250 milligrams per day (mg/d) of omega-3s:
Atlantic Mackerel
(purse seine, from Canada and the U.S.)
Freshwater Coho Salmon
(farmed in tank systems, from the U.S.)
Pacific Sardines
(wild-caught)
Salmon
(wild-caught, from Alaska)
Salmon, Canned
(wild-caught, from Alaska)
What You Can Do:
