How Sustainable Is Our Seafood by Marx Foods

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

	Whole Fish	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Whole Alaskan Coho Salmon	Least		$
	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		$$
	Fish Fillets	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Black Cod (Sablefish) Fillets	Moderate		$$$
	Coho Salmon Fillets	Least	Alaska	$$
			Washington
	Farmed Catfish Fillets	Least		$$
	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		$$$
	Mahi Mahi Fillets	Moderate	Depends2	$$$
	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	$$
	Wild Striped Bass Fillets	Moderate		$$
	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 Geoducks	NR	Farmed, 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 Virginica Oysters	Least		$$
	Wild Shellfish	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Live Periwinkles	NR	NR	$
	Roe-on Sea Scallops	Least		$$$
	Crab	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Whole Dungeness Crabs & Dungeness Crab Meat	Least		$$-$$$
	Peeky Toe Crab Meat	Least	NR	$$$
	Stone Crab Claws	Least
	Lobster	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	Maine Cold-Water Lobster Tails	Moderate		$$$
	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		$$
	Caviar & Roes	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	American Bowfin Caviar	NR	NR	$$
	American Hackleback Sturgeon Caviar	NR	NR	$$
	American Paddlefish Caviar	NR	NR	$$
	American Whitefish Caviar	NR	Depends4	$$
	Bottarga Tuna Roe	NR	Depends3	$
	Farmed California White Sturgeon Caviar	NR		$$
	Wild Caspian Sevruga Caviar	NR		$$$
	Wild Caspian Osetra Caviar	NR		$$$
	French Trout Roe	NR	NR	$$
	Farmed Italian Osetra Baerii Caviar	NR	NR	$$$
	Farmed Karat Russian Sturgeon Caviar	NR	NR	$$$
	Black Lumpfish Roe	NR	NR	$
	Pink Salmon Ikura	NR		$
	All Tobiko Flavors	NR		$-$$
	Uni Sea Urchin Roe	NR	Depends1	$
	Other Seafood	Mercury:	Sustainability:	Price:
	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 7/19/10)
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 5/24/10)
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. As you can see from the list above, we have made one or two concessions to demand. We’d love to hear what you think about this, please comment below to let us know if we should have absolutely nothing on the red list.