Seafood Sustainability, Mercury Content & Price Chart

Choosing among hundreds of seafood options is difficult enough if you are only weighing price and flavor. Add considerations of sustainability and mercury levels, and you could spend hours deciding what to feed your family. To make things easier, we compiled a chart below that shows each species’ approximate cost, sustainability rating, and mercury content.

Seafood Selection Guide
Rating Key

Elsewhere

	Whole Fish	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Whole Arctic Char	NR		$$
	Whole Alaskan Coho Salmon	Least		$
	Whole Bluefish	High	Depends2
	Whole Bristol Bay Sockeye Salmon	Least		$$
	Whole Pacific Sardines	Least		$$
	Whole Pink Salmon	Least		$
	Whole Farmed Rainbow Trout	Least		$
	Whole Frozen Pacific Salmon (Unlisted Origin)	Least	Depends1	Varies
	Whole Rockfish (Pacific Red Snapper)	Moderate	Depends2	$
	Whole Spanish Mackerel	High		$
	Whole Washington King Salmon	Least		$$
	Whole Whitefish	Least		$
	Whole White King Salmon	Least	Alaska	$$
			Washington
	Whole Wild Striped Bass	Moderate	Depends2	$$
	Fish Fillets & Steaks	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Ahi Tuna (Yellowfin)	Highest	Depends2	$$-$$$
	Arctic Char Fillets	NR		$$
	Black Cod (Sablefish) Fillets	Moderate	Depends1	$$$
	Bluefish Fillets	High
	Coho Salmon Fillets	Least	Alaska	$$
			Washington
	Farmed Catfish Fillets	Least	USA	$$
					Pacific Dover Sole Fillets	Least		$$
	Frozen Pacific Salmon Fillets (Unlisted Origin)	Least		Depends1			Varies
	Alaskan Keta Salmon Fillets	Least		$$
	King Salmon Fillets & White King Salmon Fillets	Least	Alaska	$$$
			Washington
	Lake Perch Fillets	Moderate	Depends2	$$$
	Mahi Mahi Fillets	Moderate	Depends2	$$$
	Pacific Halibut Fillets	Moderate		$$$
	Petrale Sole Fillets	Least		$$
	Pink Salmon Fillets	Least		$$
	Rockfish (Pacific Red Snapper) Fillets	Moderate	Depends2	$$
	Sockeye Salmon Fillets	Least	Alaska	$$
			Washington
	Spanish Mackerel Fillets	High		$$
	Swordfish Steaks	Highest	Depends2	$$$
	Wahoo (Ono) Fillets	NR		$$$
	Walleye Fillets	NR		$$$
	Wild Striped Bass Fillets	Moderate		$$
	Farmed White Sturgeon Fillets (portions)	NR		$$
	Whitefish Fillets	Least		$$
	Wreckfish Fillets (portions)	NR
	Fish Cheeks	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Halibut Cheeks	Moderate		$$$
	Cured & Smoked Fish	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Boquerones (White Anchovies)	Least	NR	$$$
	Mojama Tuna Prosciutto	Depends3	Depends3	$$$
	Smoked Salmon, Jerky & Lox (All Varieties)	Least	Alaska	$$$
			Washington
	Farmed Shellfish	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Live Bay Scallops	Least
	Live Geoducks	NR		$$$
	Live Kumamoto Oysters	Least		$$
	Live Manila Clams	Least		$
	Live Mediterranean Mussels	NR		$
	Live Olympia Oysters	Least		$$
	Live Pacific Oysters & Pacific Oyster Meat	Least		$$
	Live Rhode Island Mussels	NR		$
	Live Virginica Oysters	Least		$$
	Wild Shellfish	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Live Channeled Whelks	NR	NR	$$
	Live Periwinkles	NR	NR	$
	Live Mahogany Clams	Least		$
	Live Maine Mussels	NR	NR	$$
	Live Large Quahogs (Cherrystones & Chowders)	Least		$$
	Live Small Quahogs (Little, Middle & Topnecks)	Least		$$
	Live Steamer Clams	Least		$$
	Live Wild Rhode Island Mussels	NR	NR	$$
	Poached Mussel Meat	NR	NR	$
	Sea Scallops	Least		$$$
	Crab	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Whole Dungeness Crabs & Dungeness Crab Meat	Least		$$-$$$
	Peeky Toe Crab Meat	Least	NR	$$$
	Red King Crab Legs	Least		$$$
	Snow Crab Claws, Snow Crab Legs & Snow Crab Meat	Least		$$-$$$
	Soft Shell Blue Crabs	Least		$$
	Stone Crab Claws	Least
	Lobster	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Maine Cold-Water Lobster Tails	Moderate		$$$
	Cold-Water Rock Lobster Tails	Moderate	Australia: NR	$$$
	Warm-Water Rock Lobster Tails	Moderate	Florida, California	$$$
			Caribbean
			Australia: NR
	Shrimp & Prawns	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Alaskan Spot Prawns	Least	NR	$$
	Caviar & Roes	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	American Bowfin Caviar	NR	NR	$$
	American Whitefish Caviar	NR	Depends4	$$
	Bottarga Grey Mullet Roe	Least (Mullet, not roe specifically)	NR	$$
	Bottarga Tuna Roe	NR	Depends3	$
	Farmed California White Sturgeon Caviar	NR		$$
	French Trout Roe	NR	NR	$$
	Farmed Siberian Baerii Caviar	NR	NR	$$$
	Farmed Russian Osetra 000	NR		$$$
	Black Lumpfish Roe	NR	NR	$
	Pink Salmon Ikura	NR		$
	Other Seafood	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Crayfish Tail Meat	Least	Blend of USA Wild (Good Alternative/Yellow) & USA Farmed (Best Choice/Green)	$$$
	Longfin Squid	Least
	Sea Cucumber Meat	NR	NR	$$$
	Squid Ink	NR		$$$

Rating Key:
Back to Chart

Mercury:This column tracks seafood’s mercury content based on ratings provided by the Natural Resources Defense Council (following mercury level and safe consumption information from the FDA & EPA) using their scale: from “Least” to “Highest”.

According to the NRDC, fish rated “least mercury” are safe to enjoy anytime, consumption of “moderate” fish is recommended to be no more than six servings a month, “high mercury” fish should be limited to three or less servings per month, and “highest” fish should be avoided. Some of our seafood has not been rated by the NRDC and is marked “NR.”
(Based on NRDC ratings & definitions as of 2/2/15)

Sustainability: This column tracks seafood’s sustainability based on ratings provided by The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch. Monterey Bay has three ratings based on sustainability of fish stocks and environmental impact.

The best (green) rating is “Best Choice,” a good, but not great rating (yellow) is “Good Alternative” and their lowest rating (red) is “Avoid.” A few varieties of seafood that we offer have not been rated by Seafood Watch, and are marked “NR.”
(Based on MBASW ratings & definitions as of 2/2/15)

Price:The dollar signs in this column (“$” to “$$$”) give you an idea of how expensive this seafood is relative to our other offerings. Because shellfish and fish roes are generally priced on different models than other seafood, their cost ratings should be considered relative to other items in their categories only. Further, keep in mind that seafood prices can fluctuate. This is our best estimate.

At Marx Foods we strive to only feature “Good Alternative” or better rated seafood on our site, with a strong bias towards “Best Choice” seafood.

Note: We have not discussed our specific product offerings with Monterey Bay Aquarium or the Natural Resources Defense Council. This list is based on comparing our products & their specifications with those rated on the Seafood Watch sustainability & NRDC mercury guides.

¹These items, when an origin is not specified, could have been caught in various places in the ocean, but are always wild.

²The rating for this fish varies with how it was caught, and at this point we cannot specify that a single technique was used. For information on how the fishing method effects this seafood’s rating, visit the Seafood Watch website.

³The ratings for this product depend on the variety of tuna used, and at this point we can’t list a specific species.

⁴Depending on how the Whitefish for this caviar were caught, the rating is either green or yellow.