Fish to eat and fish to avoid

Pacific Cod (Gadus macrocephalus): Eat only from Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. The Pacific cod fishery is reported to be well managed with healthy stocks. Bycatch is monitored and the fishery is closed if it exceeds acceptable levels. The US longline freezer sector catching cod in these areas has also been certified as environmentally responsible by the Marine Stewardship Council Photograph: Murdo Macleod/freelance

Coley or saithe (pollachius virens): Eat from Norwegian waters only. Norway’s North Sea stocks are managed in a sustainable way, according to the MSC Photograph: Rick Price/Corbis

Mussels (mytilus edulis): Eat rope-grown or hand-gathered only. Shellfish farming is low impact and requires high water-quality standards. Harvesting by hand means less disturbance to sediment Photograph: Murdo Macleod/freelancer

Alaskan salmon: All five species of Pacific salmon caught in Alaskan waters are from certified fisheries and OK to eat Photograph: Michael Melford/Getty

King scallops (pecten maximus): Eat hand-gathered or dive-collected scallops only. Choose them from responsibly managed farms such as those that comply with guidelines from the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers Photograph: Getty

Albacore tuna (thunnus alalunga): Eat from the South Pacific only. Albacore tuna are moderately vulnerable to over fishing. Increase the sustainability of the species by choosing pole-caught, line-caught and troll-caught tuna Photograph: Kim Westerskov/Getty

Anchovy (engraulis encrasicolus): Don’t eat if from the Bay of Biscay. The stock collapsed there in 2004 and levels are at an all time low. Scientists recommend the fishery should stay closed until the spawning stock level can be accurately estimated Photograph: Kevin Schafer/Getty

Red snapper (lutjanus erythropterus): Eat only from the north coast of Western Australia. The fishery here is tightly controlled and much of it is closed to trawling. Trap-caught fish are the best choice as there is minimal bycatch Photograph: Jim Richardson/Corbis

Dublin Bay prawns, langoustine or scampi (nephrops norvegicus): Avoid eating if from Spain or Portugal. Given the poor state of the stock scientists say there should be no catch in these two regions Photograph: Lawson Wood/Corbis

Chilean seabass or Patagonian toothfish (dissostichus eleginoides): Avoid eating as it is vulnerable to over fishing. Large, slow-growing and late-maturing this fish is also slow to reproduce. It is threatened with unlicensed fishing – 50% of the catch is thought to be illegal. One fishery in South Georgia has certification but with conditions to reduce bycatch of skates and rays Photograph: Heather Perry/Getty

Haddock (melanogrammus aeglefinus): Avoid eating if from the Faroes or Scotland. Haddock is overfished here. Instead choose haddock from the north east Arctic where the stock is managed in a sustainable way Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty

Common skate (dipturus batis): Avoid eating as the species is critically endangered. Now rare in UK waters the life cycle and size of skate mean it can be caught from birth and has a low resilience to fishing pressure Photograph: Norbert Wu/Getty

Swordfish (xiphias gladius): Avoid eating. Swordfish is highly prized but current catch levels are not sustainable Photograph: Ronald C. Modra/Getty

Turbot (psetta maxima): Avoid eating if from the Baltic Sea or North Sea as stock levels are unknown but landings have shown a decline in numbers. Choose farmed turbot, line-caught fish or turbot caught in ‘dolphin-friendly’ nets - these allow juveniles to escape Photograph: J.Garcia/Corbis