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| Where's That Salmon From? By Emily Kaiser Pacific and Atlantic salmon may look alike, but they are only kissing cousins. As Diane Morgan writes in "Salmon: A Cookbook" (Chronicle Books: 2005): "Even though Atlantic and Pacific salmon . . . are in the same family (Salmonidae) along with trout and Arctic char, they are, in fact, in different genera," or group, within the Linnaean classification system. "Atlantic salmon belong to the genus Salmo. . . . Pacific salmon belong to the genus Oncorhynchus." Wild salmon have unusual lifestyles: They start their lives in freshwater rivers, migrate to oceans, then return to those same rivers to lay their eggs before dying. The height of wild salmon season comes in the spring, when the fish, nicely fattened for the journey, start their return to their freshwater birthplaces. Most Atlantic salmon sold is farmed in Norway, Scotland, the United States, Canada and Chile. Wild Atlantic salmon are scarce, usually caught only by sport fishermen. Wild Pacific salmon, on the other hand, are still available, especially from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, where fisheries are heavily regulated to prevent overfishing. Unlike Atlantic salmon, which has just one species, Pacific salmon has seven. One is available only in Japan. The other six are native to North American waters. They are (in order of quality, best first): king, coho, sockeye, pink, chum and steelhead (which is sometimes identified as a form of trout). King, coho and sockeye are the most prized because of their comparatively large size and their firm, tasty flesh. Copper River salmon are Pacific salmon from the Copper River in Alaska. Wild salmon may cost three times as much as farmed salmon, but many say it has three times the quality. The flesh is naturally pink, unlike that of farmed salmon,which is naturally grayish, because of differences in the fishes' diets. Farm-raised salmon are given supplemental -- either naturally occurring or synthetic -- dyes to give them the same rich orange color that wild salmon get from eating a diet of crustaceans and marine plant life. Also, recent studies have shown that, depending on where they are raised, farmed salmon can contain significantly higher levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, fire-retardant chemicals used in industry). But as Morgan also writes, the health risks of PCBs are much debated. |
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© 2001 - 2010 Emily Kaiser |
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