Chinook salmon and Salmo domesticus

[ramaldonado]

I think Paul Greenberg does a great job telling this narrative about the relationship between humans and nature. Human population increases, so humans look for new food sources. Humans find a natural food source (wild Chinook salmon) and then proceed to rapidly decimate this food source. As their new food source falls to critically low numbers, humans find a way to mass produce this food source (Salmo domesticus). Humans find an inexpensive way to control the food source, and humans mass produce this food source to excessive levels. In my opinion, this chapter says a lot more to me about humans’ own uncontrollably growing population than it does about the fishes.

It seems that there is a cycle between wild salmon and domestic salmon where domestic salmon were selectively bred to be the solution to the problem of the declining population of wild Chinook salmon. In theory, the ability to mass produce Salmo domesticus, and to be able to produce and breed them throughout the entire year rather than just a short season should provide the world’s population with an adequate amount of salmon, such that the population of wild Chinook salmon has a chance to reproduce and achieve growth to sustainable population numbers. However, in reality humans begin excessively producing Salmo domesticus by creating more farms and larger farms, producing domestic salmon in such quantities that the breeding and selling of these fish becomes less lucrative and containing these millions of fish becomes less controllable, which inevitably leads to the escape of millions of Salmo domesticus every year. Greenberg discusses how the emergence of Salmo domesticus in the wild creates problems for wild Chinook salmon (diseases and parasites, domestic salmon outcompeting Chinook salmon, pollution caused by waste from the large amounts of domestic salmon farms, etc.). Essentially, what was created to provide relief for the declining population of wild Chinook salmon eventually becomes one of the reasons why their population may decline further.

As Greenberg closes this section of the chapter on the negative effects of Salmo domesticus farming, I think back to the subtle notes he made about the domestication of cattle and sheep, and how somewhere along many years of domestication their wild genome has been lost and what that implies for Chinook salmon. I also think about how the people of our overpopulated planet would respond to a potential conflict between an economic way to mass produce salmon (like production of cattle and poultry) and the protection of a wild species (Chinook salmon) and what they view as more vital and important.

[faelmore]

First off, I just want to comment on how beautifully organized your writing is. As for the content, it’s wonderful. I agreed with your commentary of the novel and it matched what I wrote pretty well. There were some parts, however, that didn’t think about when writing my response and I’m glad you brought them up. I suppose somewhere between reading and writing my response I forgot about the diseases put into the water from the domestic salmon. This idea also plays into what we talked about in FISH 102 today with the aquarium trade if you happen to be in that class as well. When you said it, it immediately put me back in that mindset of how shoving too many fish into a small area just causes disease that is easily released into wild waters later from one small mishap. I also love how you mentioned multiple other talking points at the end of your post. As for your final question, I think economics will always favor the less sustainable, quick cash methods as more important. It is rare for us to choose sustainability and delayed gratification over a quick buck. Time and time again, sustainability for future generations is cast aside in favor of greed.

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