Salmon: Wild Caught vs. Farm Raised. Which is best?

[Zodiac4u]

When you go to the store bring your Geiger counter.

 

[wjk]

I haven't researched enough to make an opinion on radiation. I can tell you that Pink salmon spend only 2 years at sea while Kings can spend up to 8. Since all fish are bio accumulators, you'd obviously be better off going with the Pinks since by this time there aren't any alive now who were alive when the incident happened and they have less time to accumulate. My gut feel based on my CBRNE training is that the radiation is so diluted that you face more natural radiation when flying across the Pacific than you'd face from eating any salmon out of it, but again that's an opinion from a non-expert so it's not worth much.
My favorite wild salmon depends on how it's prepared. For soft smoked salmon the oily Kings and Silvers just can't be beat, for jerky the Reds seem to be best. For a grilled steak it's all about fat content, the Kings and Silvers are going to be high fat and naturally taste better especially for something like grilling. On the other hand, you can eat Pinks all day for super healthy protein with no fat, so I generally eat canned pink for lunch a couple days a week, either on a sandwich or right out of the can. If you're going to splurge to see how good wild salmon can be I'd say to try to find some King/Chinook or Silver/Coho (the names vary based on how fancy the seller wants them to sound) and grill it, making sure not to overcook. And if you can ever make it to Alaska to get some fresh...well maybe not a good idea because you'll never want the lower-48 store kind again.

Thanks. I'll definitely give one of your suggestions a try this weekend (hopefully my seafood shop has one of them.) I mostly prefer to grill fish, and my grill has adjustable heights, so I'm good to go on prep. I use charcoal. (I also eat a lot of farmed catfish that I catch at a local farm. They grill nicely due to fat content, as well + I know that no pesticides get anywhere near the ponds. {Somewhat a pain to clean, though.})

Thanks again for the recommendations!

While on the subject of salmon, I tried Keta one time. I didn't care much for it, though I might have overcooked it. I've read that it was the preferred food of sled dogs. It didn't cost much, though.

 

[FortuneTeller]

I read not too long ago somewhere that farmed salmon usually has way less Omega-3 in it. I stopped eating farmed salmon years ago (didn't realize it was farmed) when I got some that had worms in it. Grossed me out completely.

 

[Sig]

Thanks. I'll definitely give one of your suggestions a try this weekend (hopefully my seafood shop has one of them.) I mostly prefer to grill fish, and my grill has adjustable heights, so I'm good to go on prep. I use charcoal. (I also eat a lot of farmed catfish that I catch at a local farm. They grill nicely due to fat content, as well + I know that no pesticides get anywhere near the ponds. {Somewhat a pain to clean, though.})

Thanks again for the recommendations!

While on the subject of salmon, I tried Keta one time. I didn't care much for it, though I might have overcooked it. I've read that it was the preferred food of sled dogs. It didn't cost much, though.

So Keta is a made-up name for what has for years been called Dog Salmon, a name it got because it's indeed primarily been used for hundreds of years up north as dog food. It's about as edible as any other dog food, really a disgrace that they try to sell it as "salmon" for human consumption.

 

[wjk]

...If you're going to splurge to see how good wild salmon can be I'd say to try to find some King/Chinook or Silver/Coho...

My local sea food outlet has farmed (not sure of the type), mostly from Faroe Island, which is what I've been eating (have read some concerning material about farmed salmon from there since this thread began), but they had some really good looking wild caught sockeye from Copper River. Going to grill some in a few hours. It was only a dollar more a pound. Those are the only two salmon they carry, but they occasionally have rainbow trout, another fish I like.

Regarding radiation from Fukushima...I'm not too concerned. Regarding the following links...they may be accurate or not.

http://dec.alaska.gov/eh/Radiation/index.html

Regarding Faroe Island farmed salmon...one of many articles...not sure of date and current farming practices.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-205547/Salmon-health-alert.html

I'm still going to eat it, maybe just not as often.

 

[DallasCowboysFan]

Regarding radiation from Fukushima...I'm not too concerned. Regarding the following links...they may be accurate or not.
http://dec.alaska.gov/eh/Radiation/index.html
I'm still going to eat it, maybe just not as often.

There is a lot of money and jobs involved in the seafood industry.
If there was radiation in the fish, then it would threaten the industry as well as admit that things are worse than they are telling us and that perhaps, they are not in control of the situation.

I don't believe them when they say the seafood is safe from the Pacific, especially from Japan. Fish move, they migrate from season to season. Fish that swim around Fukushima swim somewhere else then they are eaten by other fish that never approached the area, but then they become contaminated.


It's not like our govt doesn't lie to us. Or, maybe I have just become more cynical.

 

[ballsofgold]

I just found this YouTube video about one of the farms that Whole Foods sources from. I'm pretty impressed.

I don't feel so bad about liking the farm raised now.

wow, pretty bad a$$

i never buy farmed fish but this changed my whole perspective. i was thinking they were in an indoor swimming pool, but this is decent

 

[DallasCowboysFan]

I just found this YouTube video about one of the farms that Whole Foods sources from. I'm pretty impressed.
I don't feel so bad about liking the farm raised now.

I saw this today. It seems a lot of people like their salmon.

7. The best-selling seafood item is the responsibly farmed salmon.
Look for this in the seafood section — it's the number-one selling seafood item companywide. The salmon is free of antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticides, and GMOs.


https://www.popsugar.com/food/Whole...partner&utm_campaign=feed&utm_content=link_48

 

[Banjo]

How We’ll Eat Fish in the Future
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...sh-investors-get-into-sustainable-aquaculture

 

[murray t turtle]

As a bit of a salmon snob who used to eat quite a bit that I knew was fresh because I'd just caught it....
First it's important to understand that there are a number of different species of salmon that are all radically different from one another. A fillet of Atlantic Salmon contains 27g of fat, while a fillet of pink salmon contains 7g. In between are sockeye/reds with 10g, kings/chinooks with 21, and silvers/coho which also contain 27. These fish are also significantly different in size (8-12 lb for Atlantic, vice 40-50 lbs for kings), diet, time spent in the ocean before spawning... In other words they are all only salmon by name only, otherwise they're vastly different.
Second, it's important to note that virtually all farmed salmon is Atlantic salmon and there is virtually no commercial fishery for wild Atlantic Salmon. Typically the generic "wild caught salmon" you get at a restaurant or supermarket is pink salmon. So, when you say you prefer farmed to wild caught salmon, what you're probably really saying is that you prefer atlantic to pink salmon, the fact that one was farmed and one wasn't is really incidental. The difference in fat content, as noted, is huge, but it's just because of an interspecies difference, not because those farmed salmon are "corn fed". If you prefer atlantic/farmed salmon, try some silver or king salmon and I think you'll find it more to your liking (and sadly significantly more expensive!)
Finally, my personal opinion is that salmon is one of the most sensitive fish to freshness and storage. You can freeze and thaw a tuna steak after storing it in the freezer for 6 months and it will still be OK. A salmon steak will be so fishy as to be inedible. With this in mind, it's much more likely a farmed salmon came to you fresh with a minimum of intermediate stops and mishandling, vice the wild caught salmon that had to go from a fishing boat in the Gulf of Alaska, ride around a couple days, to a processing boat, to a cold storage, transported by truck to wherever you live, sits in the distributors freezer for a while, the restaurant/store's freezer for a while....plus the fishery is only during parts of the year so by definition you're getting 6 month old salmon with wild-caught at some times of the year. I pretty much won't order salmon at a restaurant unless they explain in detail how many days off the boat it is and don't serve it out of season, for exactly this reason. Like I said, salmon snob.

%%
Good read; i heard on the news they can/cook a lot of that fish on the boat. I much prefer wild caught; even though i live on a farm.

DONT eat much catfish anymore but TN river wild caught catfish tastes much, much better than farm raised ; my dad will not eat farm raised catfish, but he has more sensitive taste than most. Farm fresh , free range or any farm fresh eggs taste much better than store bought eggs; I like them both...................................................................................