The Best Seafood to Eat

This mild fish, related to cod and known for its use in fish sticks and other processed fish products, is caught wild in the northern Pacific. It is particularly high in B-12, and is considered mercury-safe.

This high-fat fish, which resembles a cross between trout and salmon, is high in fatty acids and also carotenoids, the antioxidant pigments that give it its salmon-like color. Char is raised in on-shore tanks in the U.S., Canada, Iceland, and Norway that limit the level of contamination usually associated with farm fisheries.

Mahi-mahi is a tropical fish, low in calories and high in nutrients. It is also called a dolphinfish, though it has nothing to do with the mammal called dolphin.

Like other slow-growing fish, ocean perch has some mercury content, but it isn’t excessive, and an occasional perch dinner is justified by the fish’s high levels of other nutrients. It is low in Omega-3s. (Ocean perch isn’t to be confused with freshwater perch, which is unrelated.)

While Atlantic halibut has been overfished and may contain substantial quantities of mercury and/or PCBs, its mild-flavored Pacific cousin is high in protein and other nutrients, most notably, selenium. Like other large fish, it does contain mercury, but in somewhat smaller amounts than tuna.