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Mr Fishman's profile of the farmed salmon industry seems incomplete to me, because it does not address the American fish industry. I grew up on Kodiak Island, and the salmon fishery was the main economy during my childhood. I even spent a summer on a commercial salmon seiner as a deckhand.
It's been 20 years since I left there. I'm told things are very different today; that Fishermen can't get a price for their catches that will cover the expenses of running a boat, that one can see boats lying dormant in the harbor at the height of fishing season. I've heard that people can't afford the fuel and insurance for their boats. An entire industry has been decimated.
You can probabaly still start a fight in Alaska, by asking if the stocks of Alaskan wild fish have been well-managed. But after all the efforts to protect man and fish, and efforts to patrol the International boundary that prevents foreign nations from stealing the American fish stocks, it seems a trememdous betrayal to buy the vastly inferior Chilean fish.
Farmed fish is flabby in texture and nearly tastless. It has likely been dyed and, as Mr. Fishman points out, been fed additives. Would you be able to tell the difference? If you've eaten sushi-grade salmon,marveling at its taste and texture, most likely eaten wild salmon. That's what you're missing, and that's what the regulated American fishery has worked so hard- at times, risked their lives- to bring to you.
