A guide to buying and cooking wild salmon. They’re two of the most frequent questions we get from people: things to eat with salmon I eat salmon?
The short answer is YES, but like any food derived from the wild, it’s part of a complex ecological web and has to be approached with care. Here at Wild Salmon Center our mission is based on ensuring the long-term health of wild salmon populations, and we believe being a conscious consumer of wild salmon is an important part of the species’ conservation. When you protect salmon, you protect a whole watershed and everything in it. Salmon are a superfood, packed with essential nutrients, and one of our last wild proteins. See more from our Eat This Salmon series.
We’ve provided a lot of useful information below, but if you need a quick answer and fall back, here’s one: go with wild Alaskan salmon. Wild versus Farmed Salmon: What’s the difference? Some wild-caught salmon originate from hatcheries to supplement wild stocks. As long as these hatcheries are managed to have a minimum impact on wild populations, wild-caught is your best bet when purchasing salmon. These fish matured to adulthood in the wild, at a natural pace, and ate a wild, marine diet. Unlike Atlantic salmon, there are still healthy wild stocks of Pacific salmon. We suggest buying wild-caught Alaskan salmon.
There’s been a lot of documentation lately of seafood being mislabeled. Farmed salmon are commercially raised fish in some form of an enclosure. Fish farms do vary but, in terms of what to look for as a consumer, they can be divided into two categories: open net pens and closed-containment systems. Open net pens are usually located in coastal waters in a cage or net system, such as the salmon farms off the coast of British Columbia. Evidence points to these open net pens still not being a good choice. When farmed salmon escape into the wild and breed with wild fish it reduces the genetic diversity and fitness of wild populations.
Escaped fish also spread parasites and diseases. Over-crowding breeds diseases and requires chemical interventions. Many net pens rapidly spread diseases and sea lice, requiring farmed fish to be treated with chemicals. Sea lice, while rarely found on juvenile fish in the wild are increasingly seen on juveniles in areas where net pens are located.
Pigment coloring is not an uncommon practice. Uneaten feed and feces accumulate at the bottom of the pens, creating large concentrations of pollutants in the surrounding water, depleting oxygen levels, and releasing noxious gases into the water and atmosphere. Closed-containment systems utilize an impenetrable barrier that separates the farmed fish from the outside environment. A closed system prevents the transmission of diseases and parasites, eliminates issues with escapement, requires fewer chemicals, and uses less feed. Another benefit is the waste gets treated within the system instead of being pumped into the ocean.
We suggest you avoid purchasing farmed salmon from open net pen farms due to their negative environmental impacts and health drawbacks. If sustainably-caught wild salmon is not an option, we suggest you only choose salmon farmed in a closed-containment system, and from a reputable source with a recognized certification program. Types of Salmon: What are my choices? There are six species of salmon that you are likely to encounter at the fish market or backyard barbecue.
Wild Sources: CA, OR, WA, B. Fresh Seasonal Availability: April through September. Qualities: Has the highest amount of Omega-3 fatty acids of all the salmon species. CA and OR stocks are classified as Threatened under the E.
Fresh Seasonal Availability: July through October. Qualities: Similar to Chinook in flavor, their flesh is firmly textured and ranges from deep red to pinkish orange. Fresh Seasonal Availability: May through September. Qualities: Bright, deep orange flesh with high fat content. Very popular for canning and smoking. Wild Sources: Commercially fished from Washington up to Alaska.