Farmed salmon is really fucked up. We used to catch ones which broke out from freshwater farms (mostly accidentally) and depending on the time of year the flesh would be grey (they feed dyed meal before they go to market) and they all had weird extra fins and deformities..
I'll eat it, I know where it comes from at least though.
All farmed fish have a higher ratio of fin and skeletal deformities than wild fish. Sometimes you can blame endogamy or genetic lottery, but it happens also with extra healthy parents caught in the wild. The main cause has puzzled the farmers for many decades; but is currently known and is terrifying: Bubbles in the water hitting the delicate microscopic larvae in its first days of life.
You hire the incorrect guy, and it takes only a bubble stone incorrectly placed creating a too strong current. Having plenty of food and almost no natural predators, a bigger percentage of this fishes will survive unless you cull it. Is as simple as that.
I can understand that some journalists would kill for a good history with elements of survival horror and the big bad army/pharma/nuclear companies creating monsters in secret laboratories; but the real life of a sea farmer is normally much more boring than a videogame.
Interesting point! Do you have a link to the research where they found that "Bubbles in the water hitting the delicate microscopic larvae in its first days of life"? Seems like an important breakthrough!
Shouldn't be easy to find such link. Take in mind that lots, and I said lots, of articles of the pre-internet era are still available only in dead tree format. You should search around the late 70's - early 80's or so.
The problem was widely studied in any case, there are books and monographies available (i.e: Abnormalities in finfish mariculture: an overview of the problem, causes and solutions. Divanach et al., 1996).
A group of articles orbit around genetic issues (triploidy in domestic Salmon has an effect for sure), and a second group around mechanic issues on the first days of life like impact against bubbles or walls. Acccidents involving chemicals released in water are rare events, all fishes will typically die (this is a bussiness unforgiving with the tiniest mistakes that you could commit) and there is not much more to say except the un-publishable "I'm stupid and killed 2000 fishes again by mistake".
Just for the record, we found a correlation between temperature and skeletal deformities in sea bass that was published in 'Aquaculture international' vol 12 (Abdel et al., 2004). Could be a good place to start searching.
All salmon flesh is naturally pale in color (look at their close relatives the freshwater trout).
The pink or red color you see in some wild-caught fish is from carotenoid pigments in the krill they consume (or that has been consumed by other creatures that are then consumed by the salmon).
The farm-raised fish are given the exact same pigments before they are sent to market.
There are reasons to avoid farmed fish, but the color isn't one of them.
> DSM has studied consumer preferences regarding the flesh color of salmon. Our research shows that dark-colored salmon flesh consistently commands a premium. Typically bought by more affluent groups, it can command an additional USD 0.50 to USD 1.00 per pound when offered side-by-side with light-colored salmon flesh.
> Light-colored salmon attracts a different consumer demographic, being more frequently purchased by minority groups than dark-colored salmon.
Well, where ever they get it seeing salmon you catch that isn't pale pink but grey is disturbing and not something which would occur naturally.
I fly fished wild salmon since I was in my early teens and they were always pink. We stole enough fish from the fishfarms to see a difference (either grey or insanely over coloured) ;)
I think maybe Pacific salmon are different to the kind we get in Scotland though? Ours only spawn once and they don't eat when they're back in freshwater (as a consequence the tail end of the fishing season is horrible; black skinny things that fall apart when you touch em)
Only Atlantic salmon are farmed in the United States and Europe. There's some farming of Pacific salmon in Chile and New Zealand, but overall it's a rounding error compared to the amount of farmed Atlantic salmon.
Most salmon (Atlantic or Pacific) only spawn once and then die, but occasionally an Atlantic salmon will survive to make another trip.
There's really no hard and fast distinction between what's called a "salmon" and what's called a "trout", other than salmon typically spending time at sea. For example, Oncorhynchus mykiss is called a "rainbow trout" if it remains in freshwater its entire life. It naturally has pale flesh (though farmed rainbow is often given the same pigments as the farmed salmon). If it spends time at sea, the exact same fish is called a "steelhead" (occasionally, a "steelhead salmon") and has red or pink flesh.
A near-relative, Oncorhynchus nerka, is called the "red salmon" or "sockeye salmon"if it spends time at sea, but "kokanee", "kokanee trout" or "silver trout" if it remains landlocked.
Grey flesh or skin can be the result of either applying too much carotenes to the diet; or maybe (I'm speculating in this second point) because its diet was high in vegetable protein contents (using soy as replacement for marine proteins is cheaper).
