Salmo Domesticus vs Wild Salmon

[Kortney Birch]

When Paul Greenberg is exposed to the native ways of the Yukon River area, he is able to learn about aspects of bartering, trade, fish-farming, and fishing methods. A recurrent issue for any people who rely on subsistence fishing would be the world claim that fish populations are in decline due to human demands. During Greenberg’s time there, he witnesses more decrease of salmon runs. Despite commercial fishing being shut down for parts of the fishing season, the natives of the Yukon River are still able to fish and collect food for their family and villages. Yet some villagers, such as Trygve Gjedrem and Harald Skjervold felt that wild Chinook salmon had “huge potential” for the world if they were artificially selected and breed in a controlled environment, which is known as Salmo domesticus (Greenberg 40). Many positive developments arose from Salmo domesticus, such as greater supply of salmon for harvesting and more opportunity for trade. But of course when man alters the balance of nature, it is a given that some kind of direct change will be inflicted. When the domesticated salmon escaped into the wild, they had the chance to completely destroy the gene pool of the wild Chinook salmon. The wild salmon were born with the tenacity to make it upstream and reproduce despite predators, while the Salmo domesticus was used to instant food and lacked the drive to survive. It is clear that the rise of Salmo domesticus directly affected the decline of wild salmon because this artificial bred species mutates the wild gene pool causing humans to continue fish-farming if the wild ones ultimately die off. I feel that humans should just let nature develop how it should and come together to protect the wild species instead of making our own.

[jlrogers4]

I also agree that we should protect our currently perfect salmon with the best genetics and not create our own version of salmon.

[rmwilliams7]

Good point on describing how introducing farmed salmon plays such a big role in wiping out wild salmon populations relating to the different genetic structures of the fish. One was created by nature to be part of the perfectly balanced ecosystem, one was created by man where the sole gain is for profit. We need to work better on protecting current populations of wild salmon rather than covering them up with farmed fish and wiping them out.

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