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For you eaters who avoid farm-raised salmon and instead seek out wild-caught varieties, your job just got a little more complicated.
According to The Oregonian, the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program has assigned a red "avoid" recommendation to wild-caught California and Oregon salmon, based on continued low levels of salmon returning to the Sacramento River. While that advice may seem clear cut, the change in recommendations can be confusing.
The avoid rating for Oregon salmon applies only to fish caught south of Cape Falcon. It does not apply to the entire state of Oregon. That's because there are two different salmon stocks being fished on the Pacific coast -- those that spawn in the Sacramento River, where stock levels have been troubled in recent years; and salmon fished from the Columbia River, thought to have moderately healthy population levels.
"This is not an overfishing issue," says Ken Peterson, spokesman for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Rather, he says it's a complex combination of circumstances that range from changes in the food supply, water management activity like dams or concrete canals contributing to limited returns, land use issues like logging, and more.
In April, the Pacific Fishery Management Council approved quotas for commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California. PFMC officials place forecasts for the population of adult salmon at 245,500. That number is significantly higher than recent years, when alarmingly low salmon levels on the the Sacramento River led to the largest fishery closure on record. In 2009, only 39,000 fish, less than one-third of the projected 122,000 to 188,000 salmon returned to spawn. The move by officials to open limited commercial and recreational fishing on the Sacramento River helped prompt the change in rating by Seafood Watch.
"We're taking a precautionary approach," says Peterson. "We want to see the returns and to see the fishery in better shape. If they don't get the returns, they're just compounding a dire situation for the fish."
While most of the salmon served at Portland, Oregon-based Higgins Restaurant and Bar is purchased from a fishing cooperative in Sitka, Alaska, chef and owner Greg Higgins says he plans to adhere to the new Seafood Watch guidelines. His advice for consumers is to ask the right questions -- but knowing whether or not the fish originated from the Sacramento River or Columbia River stock could prove difficult.
"I buy right from the fishermen, so I know where my fish is coming from. It's not a gray area for us, but the consumer is one or two steps removed. The fish moves from the fishermen to the distributor to the store, and its origins can be lost in all those transactions," says Higgins. "People need to ask the right questions and get good information about the product they're buying."
Wild-caught salmon from Washington state maintained a "Good Alternative" rating, as did wild salmon from Alaska that sports a green "Best Choice" designation.
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7-01-2010 @5:53PM LISA said... THIS IS WHY I ORDER MY FISH STRAIGHT FROM ALASKA. IT'S A BIT MORE EXPENSIVE BUT WELL WORTH IT.
7-01-2010 @2:37PM Bruce said... The problem is simple: TOO MANY PEOPLE! You can't have healthy rivers with millions of humans swarming all over the earth around them. People breeding like lesser mammals with 10-plus kids are taking up all survival room for the fish, and plundering and polluting the oceans they return from. What's so hard to understand? Oh, and why not throw open the borders for surplus population from Mexico while we're at it?
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7-01-2010 @4:40PM kbaredge126cd said... You're absolutely correct, Bruce. But who benefits the most from overpopulation? Think about it. It's never going to end until nature says enough. Peace.
7-01-2010 @2:44PM Albacore325 said... It sounds to me, by reading this report, that the Monterey Sea Watch program is based on quantity of available fish, not on quality or health concerns for consumption. While I'm all for protecting the species, by reporting a "red avoid" recommendation, it sounds like they, or you, are making this sound like a human health concern from contaminated fish. It's not. It's because of our encroachment on their domain.
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7-01-2010 @4:35PM KT said... Perhaps you should read the article. There is no mention of health concerns.
7-01-2010 @3:08PM RL said... There is only one thing wrong with the story. The CA and OR fish are out to sea and travel and are caught in AK,WA, and BC waters. We are eating these fish before they return to their native rivers.
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7-01-2010 @4:35PM sueee said... RL .. are you dense? .
If we are eating them before they return to their native rivers .. we are preventing them from spawning and therefore rendering them incapable of producing. These fish only spawn once in their lifetime and then die. In California and Oregon they are fished off the coast at the time they are returning for their final journey to the river where they were spawned. So we need to give them a chance to get home to spawn and to replenish to their former abundance.
7-01-2010 @5:10PM Benny said... I hate salmon.
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7-01-2010 @6:31PM stew said... and they hate you too benny!!!!
7-01-2010 @4:36PM tim said... hmmm, unless i'm nuts, the fish in this picture aren't salmon....
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7-01-2010 @4:39PM kbaredge126cd said... Lol. They look like trout.
7-02-2010 @3:22AM TC said... They're salmon. Salmon look different depending on the stages of their life.
8-31-2010 @2:58PM Fish Killer said... These fish are dead..
7-02-2010 @4:37PM euphraetes said... Yup, rainbow trout.
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7-01-2010 @5:17PM pebo said... Too many people right Bruce? Then why dont YOU just off yourself. Be nobel ! You Jerks make me laugh. Oh you mean OTHER people shoul not exist. got it
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7-01-2010 @5:25PM kbaredge126cd said... No he means we should slow down our population growth so that your meaningless offspring have a chance to live.
7-01-2010 @5:31PM pebo said... Yea lets slow down. I think the meaningless offspring sprang from your mother. She gave birth to someone who cares more about ferns than humans. LOL
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7-01-2010 @6:11PM ctg357 said... We need a picture for this story go out and get a fishing pole and a reel and stop by the fish market and get a fish or two. The fishing pole has the plastic rapper still on it the reel looks like it just came out of the box and the fish are the wrong species(seatrout)
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7-01-2010 @6:43PM Mark said... I live on the Columbia River and this year the fish and game department jerked us around so much that I only went fishing a couple of times. Trust me your fish are safe as catch rates were pretty low. As for the Montery Bay Aquarium, they need to pull they're head outta their a** and take a look at the sealions, they kill 20 to 30 salmon per day. Also, are they talking hatchery or wild fish?
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