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Low mercury won't save you from all the other pollutants most fish are exposed to these days: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/study-finds-toxic-pollutants-f...

Enjoy your low mercury Catfish with a hint of flame retardant and industrial coolant.



Man, that is a depressing link. (Thanks for posting it, though.)

I still can't resist the occasional sushi outing, but I've mostly stepped away from eating fish otherwise, largely because of pollution concerns like these.

I do wonder if there's room for some notion of "ultra-clean sushi." What if a restaurant went fully vertically integrated, farming its own fish in its own aquariums? Then fish could be pulled out and sliced up as needed, and you'd know they were pollutant-free.


There are good plant based alternative for maki at least. https://asian-veggies.com/products/vegan-zeastar-sashimi-10-...

For sushi novergian are buildling "in ocean" fish farm that are ridiculously big to tackle problems with fishing and existing fish farms (polution, feed, sea lice etc...)

That thing is ridiculously big -> Ocean Farm 1 https://www.salmar.no/en/offshore-fish-farming-a-new-era/

Another good thing is implementing fish directly in aquaponic farms, where you use water from fish tank as fertilizer in the water loop of you hyroponics. Might work with salmon.... but not on huge scale to meet current demand.


A confounding view here though is that even though seafood contains pollutants, the benefit of high omega-3 content in some species outweighs the negative effects of the pollutants. The key is find the combo of:

- high omega-3-to-omega-6 fat ratio in the fish

- short-lived fish (low bioaccumulation)

That basically leaves you with wild salmon, (some) farmed salmon, and small/oily fishes (like sardines and some species of mackerel).


The upside of that link is that the oceans are cleaner now than in the 1980s.


So, yeah, farmed fish are the only ones making it on the list for pregnant woman and young children. So those are what I limit myself to too. No wild catches.


I thought farmed fish (especially farmed salmon) were among the worst possible kinds of fish to consume, both environment-wise and health-wise?


Nope, precisely because they can be controlled for heavy metal intake and the like. Surprised me too.

Make sure to buy from a traceable certified farm. There ate still farms that feed their fish trash and waste, they are no longer allowed to be imported where I live. Source: https://www.mcsuk.org/goodfishguide/


> Nope, precisely because they can be controlled for heavy metal intake and the like. Surprised me too.

Pretty sure Chilean salmon, the only one I can get, is awful for you and also bad for the ecosystem. I hear bad things about some Norwegian salmon too (whose main branch apparently "owns" Chilean salmon farms).

> Make sure to buy from a traceable certified farm

Depends on which part of the world you live. Over here it's Chilean salmon. Apparently, pretty bad.

edit: wait, your link recommends wild caught salmon from Alaska, and considers farmed Atlantic salmon as dodgy! From the website you linked to:

> "Atlantic salmon sustainability varies. Avoid wild Atlantic salmon as they are struggling in the wild and numbers are dangerously low. Most of what’s in the market is farmed. There are environmental concerns relating to the farming of salmon. Check labels for how and where it was produced and look out for eco-labels [...]"

"There are environmental concerns relating to the farming of salmon"

What I heard is that Chilean salmon is pumped full of antibiotics.


There are two concerns that that website addresses: sustainability and health. They don't always align.

Here in Europe I've never seen Chilean salmon (or Alaskan) for sale.




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