Most cooked seafood is safe during pregnancy and actively recommended. The FDA advises eating 2 to 3 servings (8 to 12 ounces) of lower-mercury fish per week during pregnancy because the omega-3 fatty acids, protein, and nutrients support fetal brain and eye development. The key is choosing the right species, cooking it thoroughly, and knowing which forms of seafood to skip entirely.
How Much Seafood to Eat Each Week
The standard recommendation is 8 to 12 ounces of cooked seafood per week, which works out to about two or three palm-sized servings. That target applies to fish and shellfish from the “best choices” category, which includes the lowest-mercury options: salmon, shrimp, pollock, tilapia, catfish, cod, crab, and scallops. These species consistently test well below mercury thresholds. Fresh or frozen salmon, for example, averages just 0.022 parts per million of mercury, making it one of the safest and most nutritious options available.
If you prefer fish from the “good choices” tier, like albacore tuna, halibut, or snapper, the FDA suggests limiting yourself to one serving (4 ounces) per week. These fish have moderate mercury levels that are fine in smaller amounts but can add up if you eat them frequently.
Fish to Avoid Completely
Seven types of fish carry mercury levels high enough that no amount is considered safe during pregnancy:
- Shark
- Swordfish
- King mackerel
- Tilefish (from the Gulf of Mexico)
- Marlin
- Orange roughy
- Bigeye tuna
These are all large, long-lived predatory fish. They accumulate mercury over years of eating smaller fish, concentrating it in their flesh at levels that can harm a developing nervous system. Bigeye tuna is the variety often served as sushi-grade steaks; it’s distinct from the smaller skipjack tuna found in most canned “light” tuna.
Canned Tuna: Light vs. Albacore
Canned tuna is one of the most common sources of confusion. The mercury content depends entirely on the species inside the can. Canned light tuna (usually skipjack) averages 0.126 ppm of mercury, while canned albacore (white) tuna averages 0.350 ppm, nearly three times as much. Pouched tuna contains the same species as canned, so the same guidelines apply.
Canned light tuna falls into the “best choices” category, meaning you can eat 2 to 3 servings a week. Albacore is a “good choice” but should be limited to one serving per week. If you eat both types in the same week, scale back portions so you’re not stacking mercury from multiple sources.
Shellfish Is a Safe Choice When Cooked
Shrimp, crab, lobster, scallops, clams, mussels, and oysters are all safe during pregnancy as long as they’re fully cooked. Shellfish are generally low in mercury because they’re small and low on the food chain. Shrimp in particular is one of the most popular and lowest-risk seafood options for pregnant women.
The concern with shellfish isn’t mercury but bacteria and viruses that thrive in raw or undercooked preparations. Cook shellfish until the flesh is opaque and firm. Clams, mussels, and oysters should be cooked until their shells open; discard any that stay closed.
Cooking Temperatures That Matter
Thorough cooking eliminates the parasites and bacteria that make raw seafood risky during pregnancy. The FDA recommends cooking all finfish to an internal temperature of 145°F (63°C). At that temperature, the fish should be opaque and flake easily with a fork. If you don’t have a food thermometer, visual cues work well: no translucent or glossy areas should remain in the thickest part of the fillet.
Shellfish doesn’t lend itself to thermometer readings as easily, so rely on appearance. Shrimp should be pink and firm. Scallops should be milky white and opaque throughout. Lobster and crab meat should be fully white with no translucent spots.
Smoked Seafood: Cold vs. Hot
This is where many people get tripped up. Cold-smoked fish (like the lox you’d find on a bagel or refrigerated smoked salmon from the deli case) is not considered safe during pregnancy. The cold-smoking process doesn’t reach temperatures high enough to kill Listeria, a bacterium that’s particularly dangerous during pregnancy. Refrigeration doesn’t kill it either.
Hot-smoked fish and shelf-stable smoked fish are both safe options. Shelf-stable varieties are heat-treated during packaging and sealed in airtight containers that don’t need refrigeration before opening. If you buy refrigerated smoked fish and heat it to steaming (165°F) before eating, that also kills any Listeria present. The simple rule: if it’s cold-smoked and you’re eating it cold, skip it until after delivery.
Locally Caught Fish
Fish from local lakes, rivers, and streams can carry pollutants like PCBs and mercury that vary by location. Before eating recreationally caught fish, check your state’s fish consumption advisory, which most state environmental agencies publish online. If the specific fish you caught isn’t listed in any advisory, limit yourself to one meal per month as a precaution. If you can’t find any information about the water where you fished, the safest approach is catch-and-release.
These advisories exist because local waterways can have contamination patterns that don’t apply to commercially sold fish, which is monitored at the federal level. A bass from a clean mountain lake and a bass from an industrial waterway are very different in terms of what they’ve absorbed.
What to Order at Restaurants
Eating seafood out follows the same rules, with one extra consideration: you can’t verify the internal temperature yourself. Order fish well done or at least fully cooked through, and don’t hesitate to send it back if the center looks translucent. Avoid raw preparations like sushi, sashimi, ceviche, raw oysters, and poke bowls with raw fish. Cooked sushi rolls (like shrimp tempura or California rolls made with imitation crab) are fine.
For smoked salmon on a menu, ask whether it’s cold-smoked or hot-smoked. If the server doesn’t know, treat it as cold-smoked and either skip it or request that it be heated through before serving.