Wild vs Domestic Salmon

[jltusten]

The decline of wild salmon in my opinion, based on what I’ve read from Greenburg, is related to the rise in domestic salmon through human development. As we industrialized our use of waterways began to impede salmon runs through dams, pollution, rerouting rivers, farming and other construction which eventually led to a practically extinct salmon return in the North Atlantic, as well as much of the North Pacific, with the exception of Alaska and some other runs in Oregon, Washington and California. As living conditions started to improve our global population increased dramatically and our need for a larger food supply did as well. Luckily there have been many developments in the world of science since then, to include dynamic genetic experiments. These experiments have led to our ability to raise an entirely different breed of salmon in captivity. Salmon farming has continued to grow, and now serves as a food stock for many people, and has helped ward off starvation in some of the countries whose populations have increased the most. In addition our decision to farm salmon, may also be affecting the wild salmon runs through pollution. With the growth of salmon farming the parts of the rivers that are used have become polluted from waste from the farms, and when some of that waste escapes into the surrounding water, where some salmon still return to, it pollutes that water, which may poison the returning salmon. Another way we have affected salmon is habitat. Wild salmon return to the rivers they were born in and prefer cooler waters, which meant, that until we began farming salmon they did not exist below the equator. Now there are large salmon farms in Chile which account for significantly more of the salmon found in supermarkets than wild caught salmon does. This is largely because it is significantly cheaper than wild salmon, given the over production that comes from the farms.

[armathews3]

Love the ability of the author to drive a story so simply making it a great read and refreshing different view from other journals talking about the Franken fish.

[akjaster]

It’s sad that we have to mostly rely on farmed fish, but I dread what would happen without it. I am not saying that we shouldn’t address the issues that farming fish raise, the alternative however is over fishing and the threat of extinction because of it. Farmed raised has a long way to go, but it’s better than not having that wild caught salmon every so often.

[imatsui]

I liked how you mentioned about domesticated salmon’s habitat. I think it is big thing that now we have big number of salmons in warmer places which no salmon were existed before. I wonder how that affect local ecosystem.

[Author]

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