The Salmon Trade And How It Has Changed Our Consumption

Salmon- large popular game fish, liked for their pink flesh, live in sea but come to freshwater to spawn.

They are usually found in the Northern Pacific Ocean, ranging as far south as the Sea of Japan and as far north as the Bering straight. It’s believed these sharks spend a majority of their time in epipelagic waters, but individuals have been observed in waters as deep as 660 meters. Salmon sharks are generally about 200-260 centimeters long and weigh around 220 kilograms. They are usually medium grey to black in color with a white underbelly and short, cone-shaped snouts. Overall they have a great resemblance to Great White sharks, hence the nickname “Mini Great Whites”. The primary prey for these sharks is salmon, but they also eat squid, herring, and pollock. Salmon shark are also ovoviviparous, with a litter size of 4-5

No other place in the world offers the diversity of angling experiences that Washington does, whether it’s you are from the bank or from a boat your chances of catching a salmon is high. Beginning salmon anglers will want to focus on items at the top of the menu bar,while experienced anglers will find many useful tools closer to the bottom of the menu bar. Salmon have been recorded to weigh up to 100 pounds!The 68-year-old Les Anderson, who is part-owner of Peninsula Ford, hooked what is officially a 97 1/4-pounder, but many envious anglers realized the monster might have topped the elusive 100-pound mark when it was fresh out of the water. The biggest recorded king salmon caught by any means in Alaska was a 126-pound fish caught in a trap near Petersburg in 1949. Now the columbia river does get some of these “June Hogs” but nothing like up in the kenai river in alaska. There has been multiple fish caught out of the columbia and its tributaries have pulled out monsters from 65 pounds and

In the North Pacific there are five species of salmon. Each kind of salmon is known by different names like, Chinook (king), sockeye (red), coho (silver), chum (dog), and pink (humpback). These are all valuable, but the Chinook or King Salmon were the prize of the Columbia River system. In the late 1800s about 2,500,000 cans of salmon nearly filled a cannery store and storage rooms in Astoria, Oregon. Fresh, salted, dried, and smoked were the only options for preserving and eating salmon before the spread of canning technology in the mid 1800s.

Salmon hatcheries have been operated for a variety of purposes throughout their its history in this region, from harvest augmentation, to mitigation of habitat destruction, to conservation and preservation of native populations. Despite this long history, we are only just beginning to understand how hatchery-raised fish interact with and effect wild populations of salmon. Research shows that captive-bread salmon impact wild salmon in a variety of ways, from competing with them directly for resources, to reducing the fitness of wild populations through interbreeding between wild fish and less-fit hatchery fish. These findings have serious implications for the hatchery industry, and as the focus of hatchery operation switches from augmentation

There are many risks associated with eating farm-raised salmon versus wild- caught salmon. One risk that farm raised salmon faces is contaminants that can lead to cancer. Farm raised salmon are placed in artificially made bodies of water such as ponds, lakes, and salt water and within these bodies of water, contaminants such as PCBs can be present. Cancer causing chemicals can be present in both the water, farm-raised salmon swims in, and the food they eat. Another risk with farm-raised salmon is the use of antibiotics in order to keep the fish healthy. This unknown amount of antibiotics used on the fish can lead to a resistance to the antibiotic used to kill the bacteria’s in both human and the salmon. The humans that are consuming the fish that possess these antibiotics are unintentionally

Navigating the World’s oceans is a difficult task, finding a small place where you were born two years earlier without any navigational tools at all is impossible for most. Pink Salmon are an incredible species capable of this and so much more, but now they are faced with their greatest challenge to date. Pink salmon must somehow survive the changing chemistry due to climate change that is altering their environment, and poses the greatest risk the species will likely ever face.

For the Most part trout are fresh water fish, but even some of the ocean species return to fresh water to reproduce. As they are from the Salmon family you can see what is meant by that. Even our commonly associated fresh water trout such as Brown, Brook, Bull, Cut Throat and Char have taken to the oceans and thrive very well there.

The Atlantic Salmon is an appropriate fish to study because of it’s importance globally. It is a commonly eaten fish, and is very prevalently produced used in aquaculture techniques. In addition to that, it’s a fish that has seen a dramatic population decline globally. There are major conservation efforts concerning it, specifically on the coast of Maine. It is an anadromous fish, and typically spends 2-3 years in freshwater, then spends about 2-3 years in the ocean and then returns to it’s native river to spawn. This makes it very vulnerable to the conditions it may face in both environments.

The aim of this investigation is to consider commercial fishing in a particular country in two different environments, that is from the sea and a fish farm (aquaculture).

Delgado, C. L., Wada, N., Rosegrant, M. W., Meijer, S., & Ahmed, M. (2003). Fish to 2020: supply and demand in changing global markets. Retrieved from http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/pubs/pubs/books/fish2020/oc44.pdf

When fish like salmon are farmed, often the fish are still kept in the ocean; however, they live inside of nets so that they are still contained. There are many ethical arguments based around these net systems because these nets pose threats to wild salmon. Captive salmon can escape from the nets, which allows them to breed with wild salmon. This can disrupt the natural gene pool of wild salmon. Farmed salmon have been shown to outgrow wild salmon when introduced into the wild, and typically have higher mortality rates, which would be poor traits to be introduced into the wild gene pool, (Hindar, et al., 2006). Unfortunately, with the invasive farmed salmon being introduced to wild populations from escapees of net systems, the recovery of the original wild salmon is unlikely, even if decades went by without more intrusive farmed salmon being present, (Hindar, et al., 2006). Another problem is that the nets do not contain wastes from the captive salmon inside, wastes such as uneaten feed, and feces from the fish are dispersed into the open waters of the ocean. Wild salmon can contract infections and parasites from captive farmed salmon in nets. A study indicated that these parasites, such as sea lice, and infections lead to high mortality rates in wild salmon passing near

After hatching here, parr (newly hatched salmon) grow into the smolt stage (juvenile salmon). The transition from parr to smolt occurs when there are high amounts of the hormone thysoxine circulating in the water. Interestingly, high levels of thysoxine are correlated with the fish olfactory systems, and the fish are able to identify a multiplex of various odors in the water. After this transition, the smolt then swim downstream the river towards the saltwater, and will then spend their life (approximately 6 years) at sea. Something that I personally find very interesting about the Pacific Salmon is that after several years of being away, they are still able to return to the same stream where they were hatched in order to continue the life cycle. They have this innate ability because they “imprint” on the odors of their own stream, and are able to remember this smell for years. This has been proven through experiments in which odorants were added to the streams, and fish were tagged to determine if they returned to the correct streams. Because salmon are so precise in their recognition of their natal home, they have become reproductively isolated from other salmon. This has led to an uprising in species stratification. Due to these isolated gene pools, the Pacific Salmon lead diverse and specialized evolutionary paths, working to the benefit of each individual

Nonetheless, wild pacific salmon are fished near the shore or the ocean between May and September because they spawn in their river habitats during these months. The other challenge was that wild pacific salmon were depleting and protecting them was a great challenge as it was indirectly posing a threat to Walmart and its sea food supply chain.

Seafood has become more and more prevalent for people to want to eat these days. Fish in particular, all kinds, has become a bigger want. There are more than 30,000 different species of fish. There are different specifications such as the type, skeletal structure, and how the they are harvested. Fish can either be domesticated or man influenced or wild harvested, which delivers the best flavor and quality of a fresh fish. Fish can be purchased with many different options as well.