Eating fish, however, does have its complications. Which is better for the environment? Wild Caught or Farm-Raised? What fish are high in mercury or PCBs? Sometimes it is easier not to buy fish than to sit there at the fish counter and debate which you should take home for dinner.
The problem with farm-raised fish.
Due to over fishing, certain fish populations have declined. Raising fish for consumption seemed like a great idea, fish would be available for consumption without endangering the wild populations. However, farm-raised fish face similar health problems that cattle in CAFOs (feedlots) do. CAFOs are Confined Animal Feeding Operations, and essentially, fish farms are just aquatic version of this. Farm raised fish are fed a diet of pellets that are not nutritionally equivelant to their natural wild diets. Furthermore, the fish do not have room to move about freely and because of their close proximity to each other, they are more prone to diseases... so farmed raised fish are administered preventative antibiotics. By weight, farmed raised salmon, for example, has the highest amount of antibiotics administered than any other livestock. What is more, the fish pellets fed to the fish are made of wild caught fish (thankfully not corn!) but farm raising fish does nothing to stop overfishing since it takes almost 3 tons of fish to make 1 ton of farmed salmon. The biggest environmental concern is the escape of these farm raised fish, many of whom have been genetically modified to grow faster, into the ocean where they compete with wild fish for the same resources. Another concern is that of the toxic waste that is produced by these "farms".
The Problem with Wild Caught fish:
A study published in Science in November of 2006 state that by the year 2048 the population of all species of seafood could collapse to a tenth of their record highs. This is extremely concerning. Overfishing plays a large role in the decline of the fish populations, but so does loss of habitat, pollution and the loss of filtering water vegetation. What is encouraging is that when sustainable practices are employed, the fisheries seem to rebound. So, it as important as avoiding PCBs and Mercury to buy fish that have been fished/harvested sustainably or from populations that are not declining.
So which fish are the best? Since one of the benefits of eating fish is I consulted a few websites that I will list at the bottom of this blog and came up with this list. All the fish below fall into the "low mercury" category and is safe to consume 2-3 times a week. Also, they are harvested or fished in a sustainable manner. The number next to the fish's name is the content of Omega 3's for each 3.5 ounce of fish:
- Mackerel- 2.6 (Not King Mackerel)
- Wild Caught Salmon- 1.5
- Herring- 1.7
- Sardinnes- (canned OK)- 1.5
- Freshwater trout- (2.o for lake, .6 for brook, rainbow, etc)
- Whitefish (lake)- 1.5
- Anchovies-1.4
I don't mean to imply that other fish are not good for you, there are many that have low mercury levels and despite being lower in Omega 3's, they still have some as well as a whole host of nutrients. This was just a list I came up with to make my shopping easier.
The Green guide has several articles as well as a printable guide, but it does not list the Omega 3's.
I found the Omega 3 information in a reader's digest article:
Delicious Organics has a longer article regarding Farm Raised and Wild Caught:
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