Many of us want to eat more fish, but we’re worried about too much mercury. While all of us should be concerned, women who are pregnant or nursing need to pay special attention. A handy chart from Consumer Reports ranks fish by amount of risk in each species.
The safest fish are shellfish like prawns, scallops and oysters (sorry Kosher friends), along with wild salmon and tilapia. The Consumer Reports chart disagrees with some of the FDA and EPA guidelines on tuna, suggesting we eat even less. The FDA has a list of all fish and mercury levels, but the Consumer Reports chart is easier to read. Expand the chart to the left to see it in full, and read the full report for more details at the link below.
Special report: Can eating the wrong fish put you at higher risk for mercury exposure? [Consumer Reports]
Comments
5 responses to “Know Which Fish Are Low In Mercury With This Chart”
How about one that’s based on what Australia gets as far as mercury dosing?
Pffft, that requires that the Australian editors do some actual research. Much easier to just nick posts from the American site.
It should be noted that the Australian editors don’t just “nick” posts from the US site. Like Kotaku, most of the stories on the US site get posted here automatically, with the Australian editors adding local content.
Added info:
If the fish you are eating is caught locally (especially if you went fishing), you are advised to check the fishing section of the department of primary industry for your relevant state or territory. They will have updated warnings of heavy metals present in certain fishes in certain fishing sites of your state.
This is particularly important in rural Victoria since presence of old gold mines means the soil is has in arsenic and mercury. Recent heavy rains and floods after a period of drought means the sediment gets kicked up and consumed by fish before it can be washed away.
For Australia-NZ, this provides a good general guide: http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/chemicals/mercury/pages/default.aspx
Just check for any environmental restrictions on the area, as noted above. If you’re fishing in Sydney Harbour, west of the bridge (e.g. Pyrmont, Darling Harbour etc), you shouldn’t eat any of those fish – http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/consumers/keeping-food-safe/special-care-foods/sydney-harbour-seafood#.VCig4SuSwdI
As a rule of thumb… The smaller the fish the lower the mercury.
Mercury in fish has more to do with the placement in the food chain, age and the diet of fish. Fish like flake, being a shark and a top line predator eats a fish which has probably eaten another fish which has eaten a smaller fish which has eaten algae and smaller organisms. If an older fish with a higher concentration of mercury is eaten by another fish. this in turn passes on the toxicants to the larger fish. This is known as Bioaccumalation/Bio Magnification.
For this reason. sometimes when dead whales wash up on shore, they need to be treated as Bio-hazards due to their potential toxicity, especially if they are a top line predator.