Wild Salmon vs Domestic Salmon

[Isabella Erickson]

The decline of wild salmon was a large part of what sparked the creation and rise of domestic salmon. If wild salmon was plentiful there would not have been a market for domestic salmon, so there would not have been any money to be made from their creation. Even if there would have been a market for domestic salmon in the winter, the sheer amount of domestic salmon would not have been bred because there would not have been as much motivation for the breeders. If wild salmon was commonplace before domestic salmon had been created there would not have been as much appeal to salmon itself because it would not be a rare thing to have. Had the population of salmon not been decimated, and people still viewed salmon as Harry Truman did when he said “that the present salmon runs must be sacrificed’ for dams there would not be as much of a demand for salmon because it would not be seen as something special to have(Greenberg, pg. 27).
Despite the depletion of wild salmon stores being the reason for domestic salmon’s existence, Greenberg also hints that domestic salmon might be contributing to the decline of wild salmon. Disease and parasites are able to transfer from the domestic salmon, who live in the perfect environment for these to thrive, to wild salmon. Even the waste from the densely concentrated populations of domestic salmon changes the environment that wild salmon may live in. Escaped domestic salmon are even threatening to starve out wild salmon when they cannot reach the spawning grounds to replace them. Paradoxically, each of these issues is in part causing the other.

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