Which Salmon to Eat?

Chinook salmon. Photo: NOAA

As reported in April’s Upwelling, California usually opens the West Coast wild salmon season in May. Up and down the California coast, you'd see eager fishermen setting up camp preparing for the first day of the fishing season.

Not this year.

That's because the Pacific Fishery Management Council closed the commercial salmon fisheries in California and Oregon for the 2008 fishing season. Despite managers' best efforts, populations of chinook and coho salmon are at historically low levels.

Human activities on land have not been kind to West Coast salmon.  Salmon live only a few years and release large numbers of eggs, making them resilient to overfishing. But, salmon return faithfully to the rivers where they were born, making them highly dependent on specific freshwater areas and susceptible to population crashes from habitat loss.

Urban development, dams and water diversion for agriculture have left stocks of salmon severely depleted, and driven some salmon runs extinct. The remaining stocks are more vulnerable to fishing pressure and changes in the ocean such as warmer sea surface temperatures.

By contrast, the relatively pristine freshwater systems in Alaska still support salmon runs that are largely intact and robust.

"Keep eating wild salmon from Alaska and Washington state," says  Zeke Grader, of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association. "It's critical that consumers demand this product."

Join Zeke in asking the Governor to improve conditions for healthy salmon runs.  Write the Governor today.

Where can you find sustainable salmon?

Paul Johnson from Monterey Fish Market explains, "The only up side to this terrible scenario is that consumers are being pushed to try previously under-utilized sockeye and pink salmon. These species represent 95 percent of the wild salmon fishery. The Japanese consider sockeye the best because they're filter fish, meaning they have the lowest levels of contaminants. They tend to not be  parasitized and have an unbelievable deep, rich color, because they primarily eat krill. This year we're selling retail sockeye for only one or two dollars more than last year."

"Ask for it, tell your supplier you would like sockeye or pink salmon—anyone who is sourcing king salmon can source sockeye," says Paul. "We're right in the middle of the fresh season, the next couple of months, but you can also get wild-caught frozen salmon from Alaska year-round."

Remember that farmed salmon remains on the Seafood Watch "Avoid"  list.  Wild salmon comes from Alaska and Washington, and these sources are the best choice. Look for the label saying Wild Caught and avoid all farmed salmon, even if it says, "sustainably farmed".

To learn more about which seafood to buy and eat, download a Seafood Watch pocket guide.