Wild Salmon vs Farmed?

funny enough-- i think wild king can actually taste different amongst themselves. I've noticed that i catch two different flesh versions-- one that is deep red, and rich. and another that is pale orange and oily. I'm convinced that the red ones are krill fed, and the orange ones are now feeding on bait fish. i prefer the red version....

I'd taste test broiled, with nothing on it, after of course the fish has reached room temp. If i want to eat for pleasure, then broiled/grilled a bit o' salted butter

I agree the krill fish are much deeper red.  I have even (rarely) seen white salmon, no red at all....

Allen

There's no fish on the planet like a 12or18 lb salmon caught bled iced and eaten within a few hours of coming out of the pacific

Some major chi stored up in a fish like that

ya got my mouth all watering now!

There's no fish on the planet like a 12or18 lb salmon caught bled iced and eaten within a few hours of coming out of the pacific

Some major chi stored up in a fish like that

You got me thinking about summer of 2004...for kayakers and nearshore fishermen, that was a year to remember. We caught 30, I believe, that summer. The freezer was red with salmon. Nothing like fresh and wild.

One day in fall of '99, I caught two salmon at Linda Mar mooching from my float tube!

Wild salmon fresh caught and cook the same day is much better then farmed salmon of the same species which is two to three days old when you buy it in the store.
the oil content in the different spieces of pacific salmon is what many people says make the difference in the taste, sokeyes have the most oil content of all the Pacific salmon and many people say tastes the best.

It takes more than 5 lbs of baitfish to get 1 lb of farmed salmon, no regs on netting baitfish cause there is a 100 million dollar biz in farmed salmon. The baitfish and krill are being taken from the wild, no wonder the Grey whales are starving this year and who knows what else...Think the farming industry has a few lobbiests?!
IMO farmed fish is evil, evil, evil, and its everywhere you look.
The naive public. Oh, well, wild tastes better!

I would think the wild would taste better but that doesn't mean much.  As for fat content...a few years ago I watched an episode of the Japanese version of Iron Chef.  The Secret ingredient was an Pacific salmon that was androgynous.  Apparently this is highly prized as the fat content in sexless fish is higher, or some one is a marketing genius because the show reported the stuff can go for up to $400 a pound.

Guitarzan.......

I'm (have always been) under the impression that farmed fish are fed a hugely varied mix of "by-product" of the American Food Processing Industry.

You're saying they're being fed fresh-caught krill & baitfish.

This really does not make sense in economic terms...
And anything that doesn't quite ring-true, often isn't...
Could you double check (and ref.) your source???

One of the greatest evils around is that commercial fishermen are ALLOWED
to catch squid (calamari).     Squid are a primary element of forage for wild
salmon and they are being harvested for WE HUMANS to eat......as well as
being tinned and labeled to feed our dogs and cats.

Hey look........you cannot demonize farmed salmon.....
Farmed salmon are    S A V I N G    wild stocks

Farmed salmon are starving out commercial fishermen...and can A N Y T H I N G
benefit wild fish stocks more.....than the elimination of commercial fishing.

Eat a Farmed Salmon
Save a Wild Salmon

It's that simple

Judd

PS----and you are right...!!!....if ANYONE is being PERMITTED to harvest Krill, it's a crime of greatest-proportions.     I'm gunna go off and do a GOOGLE search on "krill harvest" ....right NOW...!!!..

How is eating farmed salmon helping wild salmon?
The fish are fed fish meal, they dont feed them scraps from the butcher thats for sure, they concentrate all kinds of crap/parasites where the pens are to infest any smolt that happen by, and the industry would love to see the wild stocks plummet. Im not into conspiracy theories, but I still think the farms are death to wild fish and just out for the money.

Couldn't agree more Ben eating Farmed Salmon is like killing Wild ones for no reason it's a cheap fix sorta like sniffing Gas.


http://www.healthcastle.com/farmed-salmon.shtml
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080212-salmon-lice.html
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_factsheet.aspx?fid=133
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/01/040109072244.htm

Yup, I just googled it and found most websites are vary against farmed salmon, found a good one WITH footnotes. Its called Section z making our economy safe. In 2003 they took 2 and a quarter million tons of baitfish, used to make fishmeal to get 871,000 tons of salmon. Look for the reference. Just one of the many things making the boil bigger.
The squid are going out of control cause the preditors, mainly tuna, are gone. They put gps in the lead big tuna and just track the school till its gone. For sushi, canned, cat food... Get it while we can.

Thanks Ben and Mick for actually suppling some references!

I have started doing some research for The Salmon Challenge. Obtaining wild chinook salmon that has not been frozen seems to be a very tricky business. I assume that is just because it's not commercial salmon season in AK?

Even so, I do wonder how much of the fresh wild salmon available for purchase has been previously frozen? Even during the commercial season.

I am considering ordering online from three sources each of wild and farmed, all flash frozen, since I think this is how most of the population will get it's salmon (and most of the population thinks wild taste's better than farmed).

By law all sushi sold in the US has to be frozen first, I didnt know this till recently. Its to kill the parasites, when we were catching salmon, I froze most of it, then we ate it raw w/ sushi rice, sea-weed, finger rolls...wasabi...mmmm. The best Ive ever had. Tastes much better than cooked salmon. Couldnt imagine eating raw farmed/dyed salmon although I probably have in sushi places.

I always freeze it before I smoke it for the same reason.

Pre-frojavascript:void(0);zen smoked tape-worm, mmmmm.

  My dad always says coho is better to freeze for the winter than chinook and it's because of the fat content. He always eats the chinook pretty quick.
  I get my salmon from the Safeway by my house, They always have flash frozen sockeye from Bristol Bay. Their fillet machines even take the pin bones out. I would never buy farmed salmon. When I was at the butcher shop last Sunday, all they had was farmed. I bought some Ling cod.