According to an essay in NRDC's This Green Life, many more people may be injured by mercury pollution exposure than is widely assumed. 

Many fish commonly caught or consumed in the Houston area are contaminated by mercury from air pollution. The US Environmental Protection Agency should adopt stronger air pollution regulations to protect the public from mercury contamination.

Good Seafood Recommendations

Please consider buying or ordering the following seafood. These choices have been screened for low mercury and sustainability.

• Abalone (US farmed)
• Anchovies
• Catfish
• Clams (butter, geoducks, hard, littlenecks, Manila)
• Crab (Dungeness, blue, King, & snow)
• Crawfish (US)
• Croaker
• Halibut
• Herring
• Mahi Mahi/Dolphinfish
• Oysters (farmed eastern, European, Pacific)
• Perch (freshwater)
• Redfish
• Sablefish/Black Cod (Alaskan)
• Salmon (Atlantic farmed, Pacific wild)
• Sardines
• Shrimp (Northern from Newfoundland, US farmed)
• Striped Bass/Atlantic Rockfish (farmed)
• Sturgeon (farmed)
• Tilapia (US)
• Trout (freshwater, farm-raised)
• Tuna (canned, chunk light is safe)
• Whitefish

Fish to Avoid Due to Mercury Contamination

• Freshwater Drum Grouper
• Largemouth Bass Mackerel (Spanish)
• Marlin Orange Roughy
• Rock Cod/Bocaccio/Pacific Rockfish Salmon (farmed)
• Shark Smallmouth Buffalo
• Striped Bass/Atlantic Rockfish (wild) Sturgeon (wild)
• Swordfish Tilefish
• Tuna (White Albacore, Yellowfin, Bluefin) Walleye

For all fish caught in or near the Houston ship channel & Upper Galveston Bay & all contiguous waters north of a line drawn from Red Bluff Point to Five Mile cut Marker to Houston Point in Harris & Chambers counties. Chemicals of concern in addition to mercury include dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyls & organochlorine pesticides. For ALL SPECIES of Fish and Blue Crabs from this area: