wondash

I just recently learned that the salmon we buy in the grocery store or fish market may be artificially colored! Farm raised salmon is normally gray or white in color and the fish is fed food coloring to make the meat pink. Kinda pisses me off because I've always used the color as an indication of the freshness.

splck

antibiotics & pesticides too.
I don't want to get into the whole mess that is farmed salmon, but I'll post a link for you to read.
Link:http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/farm_issues.htm
Look for the "Salmon Farming and Human Health" tab.

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nice line eh?

Sparhawk

There is usually a big sticker on the salmon I buy that says 'artificially colored'

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Mister Coaster

Look around for "wild caught" salmon. Right now is a good time to get Copper River Alaskan King Salmon. It is naturally pink (almost RED) and is FAR superior to any Farm raised fish. The price may be upwards of $15.00 or more per lb, but trust me, it's worth it.

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wondash

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see if we can get it.

splck

ANY wild salmon is better than farmed. Just ask the fish person if it's wild or not. If all they sell is farmed, ask them to bring in some wild for you.

King, Chinook, Spring or Tyee....it's all the same fish
I prefer Sockeye or Coho myself.

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nice line eh?

Mad_Gecko

I once heard they get pink from the shrimp they eat out in the sea, dunno if it was a fisherman's tale, but it explains why the farmed stuff ain't pink.

Also another fisherman said they taste better wild cause of the stress they go thru whilst swimming to spawn.

Seems to me fishermen have an answer for everything .

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wondash

Living in PA, I don't know any fishermen! Do they wear yellow slickers?

evo_schen

that is correct, learned that in high school marine biology

suviko

Hmm, only the eggs are hatched in farms and young salmons released to nature in Scandinavia to be caught & sold year ot two after.

The pink color comes from carotenoids (sort of vitaming A) like in carrots and there is a syndrome called M74 affecting the salmons so that they get paler and paler each generation, and they also produce significantly less offspring. It's not only shrimp but also the fish the salmon eat that contributes to the color and vitamins and how the pollution effects stuff is yet uncertain.

Mad_Gecko

suviko, not sure if we really know how pollution is effecting anything.

But thanks to all for supporting the fisherman's tales, I did seriously wonder if they were making that one up.

As for wearing yellow slickers, the dude outside my balcony always wears Tommy Hilfiger, guess they are slowly catching up .

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Hanxter

Here we go - my favorite subject...

When in school, i first studied marine biology in Washington state., also worked at a steelhead hatchery (sea-run ranibow trout). They were trapped and trucked from spawning streams to the hatchery where the females were stipped of their eggs (to insure optimum egg count) & we "jerked off" the males for the milt (sperm).

The young were fed a combination of liver, shrimp & other nutrients to include vitamins. Once a certain size & weight, approxiamately 1 year old, they would be released to the wild to mature and return. The process continued.

Because of the commercial fisheries in the Northwest & the netting of the rivers allowed to the Native Americans, (The Boldt Decission - Boldt is NUTS not to mention an asshole), the natural populations of steelhead & salmon declined rapidly as the market value for skyrocketed. More commercial fisherman were then either bought out or moved to farming.

Today the practice of farming has become extremely controvertial. The fish are fed the same type of pellet crap now that was used decades ago. The fish we released to the wild grew out of the "liver" taste whereas the fish at market today taste like shit & have a texture of a wet sponge. I have been sport fishing for 40 years, (& yes - I'm an old fuck), and refuse to eat some fin bearing chemically raised organism some rich asshole tells me is a trout, steelhead or salmon. Just won't. Also, any farm raised fish that should escape the pens threaten native fish with deseases that natives are not immune to.

Here in Maine, it's illegal to sell native Atlantic salmon, the species is damned near extinct. While the landlocked salmon are prolific, hatcheries are still needed to satisfy the sportfishing demand. But the taste still sucks, so unless it's a killer, I release 99% of my catch. But, you go to a fish monger around here, where haddock is delightful, all you'll find for trout or salmon is garbage.

So, I may suggest to you to buy only native, commercially caught (NOT raised) salmon - the $$$ is worth it!!! The flavor is delicate so don't kill it with large amounts of sauces or garnishes. Smoking should be done carefully & with great care - it's easy to ruin if the fire is too hot and the time too short. Cedar chips well soaked in water gives a wonderful taste to the fish.

Now, the end of this...

DO NOT TELL ME THAT STEELHEAD IN THE GREAT LAKES ARE STEELHEAD!!! While they may have originally come from steelhead eggs, they are lake run rainbows!!! PERIOD!!!

splck

Agree 100%. Here are some pics of some real steelhead from the West coast.
Steelhead pics

Real fish don't eat pellets

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nice line eh?

gibingus

it would be a good thing if we could put pressure on the aquaculture industry to raise their standards so fish farming would produce better products. of course wild fish are better all around for the consumer, but commercial fishing needs to be curtailed so the populations can beef up their numbers before market demand wipes them out.

i only just started eating swordfish again, and although i love it, i still feel guilty for buying it. when i think about what has happened to the lobster population in the last 30 years (i'm not that old of a fuck, but I do read and research a lot), it really gives me pause to think about natural resource management. there are so many damn people on the earth now that we really need to grow up and start thinking about how our current consumption is limiting our future choices. i think we are past measures that consumers can take (like the swordfish boycot), and need government level incentives to reshape the comercial fishing and farming practices.

my grandfather was a charter fisherman on lake michigan, and we really noticed the rapid decline in the coho population in the 80s. i think global warming is impacting coldwater fish populations more than anyone is letting on.

i would hate it if the only salmon my son can taste when he grows up is that dyed shit.

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Hanxter

posted on Sept. 20, 2003 in the Portland (Maine) Press Herald...

sorry for the link - but this issue has me riled and can find nothing less than beauracracy at it's worst...

SALMON

"She studied fish remains at more than 70 New England sites where native people lived before the year 1500. She knew of today's much larger - though also shrinking - salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest and both coasts of Canada. Still, she expected to find at least some salmon bones in New England. She found almost none."

"Many program administrators have tried to fault Carlson's science. They say salmon bones simply disintegrate over time. Yet Northwest digs turned up plenty of them, Carlson says."

well, no shit!!! the pacific northwest salmonids die after spawning, you twit. therefore, you're bound to find more bones in the northwest than you will on the atlantic since they return after spawning. what a fucking moron...

and this...

""If we throw more fish in, it seems we're just feeding the cormorants," said Richard Dill, a Maine state biologist. "I think everybody's a little discouraged. They put a lot of time and effort into it for little returns.""

i've seen them do this - they'll stock thousands of salmon in the kennebec but during the day - the shags - as we call them - will swarm and it's a feeding frenzy at the richmond landing - do it at fucking night!!!

just pisses me off...

Macheath

I remember hearing this a few months ago, it really pissed me off. I'm starting to think that factory farming techniques are getting so extreme, we'll soon forget what REAL food tasted like.

coilz

Wow. my organic chemistry prof actually talked about this in class. The pigment is from the salmon's diet of *insert salmon food here*.

Cynthetiq

Icelandic Salmon...

I'm not a salmon fan... but I did like that salmon.

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