Why Your ‘Healthy’ Seafood Choice Might Not Be That Clean, According to ‘The Art of Being Well’

You know the drill. You’re standing at the fish counter, feeling smug about making a “good” choice, and your eyes lock onto one word like it’s a gold star: wild-caught. Into the cart it goes. Clean. Superior. End of story…right?

Not exactly.

On The Art of Being Well, host Dr. Will Cole sits down with James Arthur, co-founder of regenerative seafood company Seatopia, to pull apart why “wild-caught” has become a wellness flex—and why it doesn’t always mean what people think it means. Whether you’re trying to eat cleaner, avoid hidden junk in your food, or just want to know what actually matters when buying stuff from the sea, this convo is for you.

Why Your Wild-caught Seafood Choice Might Not Be That Clean

Wild-caught isn’t automatically better

“If the whole world only asked for wild caught seafood…we would deplete the quota in 16 days,” Arthur tells Dr. Cole. “Like, it doesn’t suffice. What are we going to do the rest of the year?”

Sixteen days. That’s how fast the ocean would tap out if everyone tried to eat this way. And it’s not just a hypothetical. Arthur says wild-caught production already hit its peak back in 2002 and hasn’t grown since. So when demand keeps rising but supply stays flat, the math just stops mathing.

Then there’s what’s actually inside that fish. “You can’t test a fish in the ocean and not find microplastics,” Arthur says. “From the bottom of the Mariana’s Trench to the top of the Himalayas, there’s microplastics.”

And it’s not just plastic. “Mercury today is 300 percent higher in the oceans than it was at the beginning of the industrial revolution,” he explains, thanks largely to “coal-fired power plants.” Those toxins build up over time, especially in bigger fish higher on the food chain. So the exact species people brag about buying are often the ones carrying the most baggage.

This is why Arthur says we’re kind of asking the wrong question in the first place. “We don’t say that farmed chicken or beef is bad,” he points out. “We ask, how was it farmed?” Same logic applies here. Wild-caught versus farmed isn’t the hill to die on. How the fish was raised, what it was exposed to, and how it was handled matters way more than the label on the sticker.

Where the microplastics actually hide

So microplastics are everywhere, but what actually matters is where they pile up in seafood—and how that sneaks into your cooking without your consent.

Shrimp shells

“I used to love taking whole shrimp, shell on, cooking them,” Arthur says. “Sometimes [I’d] eat the shell if they were cooked perfectly crispy…I don’t do that anymore.”

Shrimp are filter feeders. As they move through the water, they filter microplastics—and those particles concentrate in the shells. So when you boil those shells down for flavor, you’re also concentrating whatever the shrimp filtered out.

Arthur’s move now? Skip shell-based broths. That “zero-waste” moment isn’t doing what you think it is.

Oysters and mussels

Oysters and mussels are also filter feeders, but unlike shrimp, you don’t remove anything before eating them. You’re eating their whole built-in Brita filter.

“We don’t currently sell any oysters or mussels because the digestive tract is intact,” Arthur explains. “You’re eating the digestive tract…the bivalves are filtering a lot of microplastics, and it’s right there in that digestive tract.”

There’s no trimming around it. Whatever they filtered out of the water comes along for the ride.

Fish livers

Fish livers have long been hyped for their omega-3s and nutrient density—and that part is real. But “if you’re trying to avoid microplastics,” Arthur doesn’t recommend them. And honestly, it makes sense. The liver is basically the fish’s filter. It’s where stuff gets processed. So if a fish has been swimming through microplastics, that’s one of the places they’re most likely to end up. 

Scallops 

Scallops are the rare seafood loophole. When you eat one, you’re only eating the adductor muscle—that clean, round medallion—not the digestive system. “It’s not the integrated anatomy that has a digestive system like an oyster or mussel where it’s all kind of together,” Arthur explains. Because of that, scallops don’t trap contaminants the same way filter feeders do. When they’re handled right and tested, they consistently come back with low or even undetectable levels of microplastics. In ocean terms, that’s about as clean as it gets.

What to pay attention to at the fish counter

Start with the type of fish. Arthur explains that humans didn’t evolve eating massive, open-ocean predators every week. “We evolved eating a lot of the fish along the shorelines,” he says—think salmon and trout, species that move between saltwater and river systems. These smaller, migratory fish tend to have a better balance of mercury and selenium. Giant ocean predators like swordfish and big tuna sit higher on the food chain, so they collect way more of the stuff you’re trying to avoid.

Then use your nose. “Fish shouldn’t smell fishy,” Arthur says. That sharp, funky odor is a sign the omega-3s are oxidizing. If it smells off, don’t talk yourself into it. Fresh fish should smell like the ocean on a nice day, not like a crime scene you’re desperately trying to cover up with lemon.

And remember: seafood doesn’t get a pass just because it comes from the ocean. Start asking the same questions you’d ask about any other protein. We already do this with chicken and beef—fish shouldn’t be the exception.

Want the full conversation? Tune into The Art of Being Well, streaming now wherever you get your podcasts.

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