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Today’s Healthy Monday tip: Dive into sustainable seafood.

Everybody knows that as far as animal-based protein goes, fish is some of the healthiest out there. But not all fish are created equal: from a health perspective, farm-raised salmon is much fattier, but boasts fewer Omega 3 fatty acids (the “good” cholesterol) and higher levels of Omega 6 (the “bad” cholesterol). Its wilder counterpart is also higher in protein. (World’s Healthiest Foods)

On the ecology front, farming fish is also bad news: farmed salmon often harbor sea lice, which can kill up to 95% of the wild young fish that pass by. The farmed fish are inoculated against the bugs, and treated with pesticides. Other problems with farming fish include threats to biodiversity, potential harm to other marine life (like birds caught in nets and sea lions shot for preying on the penned fish, and wild salmon displaced by escapees) and pollution.

One more creepy fact: farm-raised salmon lacks that pinkish-reddish salmon color that wild salmon gain naturally from eating pink krill. At least, farm-raised salmon would lack that color if it weren’t fed canthaxanthin, a synthetic pigment that, in high levels, can have an adverse affect on the eyesight of humans.

Salmon aren’t the only fish in the sea. There are many kinds of seafood, and incorporating them into a diet that is healthy for both you and the planet can be complicated. But there are also some great tools out there to help you figure it out! Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch offers small, printable guides, and Blue Ocean Institute’s Fish Phone allows users to text the name of the species in question to receive information on the healthfulness and environmental sustainability of that species (they’ll even suggest alternatives to particularly problematic fishies).

Want to learn more? Our friends at Edible San Francisco just published a whole Fish Issue.