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The Planet

The Planet
October 1998 Volume 5, Number 8

To Eat or Not to Eat?

Before you buy salmon, ask about its origin. Top priority should go to wild salmon; buying wild encourages the protection and restoration of runs. Next come hatchery-bred fish. Hatcheries produce salmon in a controlled environment and release them into the sea as juveniles to continue their life cycle. But hatcheries can breed disease and they don't diminish the need for wild salmon, which must continually be added to the gene pool or production will decline. Avoid "farmed" salmon that spend their entire lives in pens in the ocean; they are treated with antibiotics, are less nutritious and the concentrated population pollutes the marine habitat.

Back to the salmon story.