— Liz Chroman

So, yeah, this is an interesting question, I think, and I'm gonna take a little tangent here as I often do, and, uh, just say that a lot of of times these questions depend on how you word them, right? And, um, so when I, when I see a question like this, I think about, um, you know, is eating fish bad because of the plastic? So, you know, like, uh, you know, how much plastic is bad for you versus, you know, how much is good for you? Uh, is, you know, one way to parse this. And very often in this country, in the United States, we ask the question, how much plastic is bad for you? And then we get all kinds of opinions right around, you know, how much plastic, uh, the average human can tolerate, and what kind of plastic is it? And, uh, you know, so on and so forth. But if you pose it in a different way, you know how much plastic is good for you, then the answer is probably zero. And then the discussion takes on a different tone. But, uh, if we take a look, uh, uh, specifically at your question that you've posed here, Liz, um, the, the, the quick answer is that these larger fish, uh, the, the, the predators, uh, that have a longer lifespan, have a longer time to accumulate plastics in their own bodies, and therefore give us the opportunity to eat more plastics if we consume them. Whereas, generally speaking, if you consume smaller fish at the, uh, at the lower end of the, uh, food supply chain, you know, like sardines and herrings, then you're probably gonna encounter fish with a lower level of plastic and therefore consume less plastic. That's the very general approach. There are variations, or, or I should say, um, um, some, some, yeah, some, some variation in terms of where the, uh, the, the fish are sourced, for example. But, um, we have, uh, this link for you to explore, uh, which is from the Monterey Bay Aquarium folks that have, that have maintained this website for many years now, and it's called Seafood Watch. And they have a lot of information on ocean health as well as, uh, different species of fish, uh, recommendations on, uh, fishing or, or not fishing consumption, or, you know, don't consume certain fish, uh, based upon populations globally. Uh, there are other websites that you might consider as well, but this is a great place to start. And, um, you know, ultimately, uh, you know, fish, you could probably consider fish to have some degree of plastic in them, uh, but in some cases, the, the quantities are pretty darn small. And then you wanna start to think about the health benefits of fish, if you wanna include that in your diet, and if that outweighs the concerns o of, uh, the plastic that you've raised here. So this is a complex question, it's nuanced. And then ultimately, you, the individual, get to decide what might be best for you and your situation.

https://www.seafoodwatch.org/seafood-basics/what-is-sustainable-seafood