Kirt responded to my wild salmon post in private. I found his response
too good to keep for myself so here comes a slightly edited version of
his post to me:

Kirt:
>I'm pretty baffled by the wild salmon depletion stuff. In Seattle,
>during the summer wild salmon is cheaper than farmed! A friend in the
>wholesale fish industry (Milwaukee) has told me that the trend is
>towards farmed: consumers prefer it because it is fattier and more
>consistently fatty. Luckily, many of the Japanese /sashimi folks feel
>the same way. It may be that farmed salmon will take over the market
>in the coming decades, and perhaps not just because the wild
>populations are depleted. I don't mean to minimize the troubles of the
>world's fish supplies, but it seems that unless there is some global
>regulation, it is in evitable that the world's fisheries will collapse
>to a large degree. I almost welcome this; the big money folks can lose
>their shirts (esp the frickin Tawainese) and the fish stocks will
>recover after a time. And after the collapse you can bet there will be
>more respect for sustainability and global regulation. I think :/
>In any case the pacific NW salmon industry is well-regualted already;
>the big trouble being the loss of fresh-water stream reproduction
>grounds...bla bla, all of which I'm sure you've heard before...
>On the other hand, mackerel, sardines, etc are staple fishes used in
>the fish meal industry!!!! They are as fine as or superior to salmon
>in every way and end up in fertilizer and chicken feed! Urrggg. And
>then there's herring, which I've never seen fresh. :(

Text:
>>>>I was under the impression that farmed salmon fish contains less
>>>>omega 3 fatty acids compared to their wild (not farmed)
>>>>counterparts. I checked the USDA Nutrient Database and discovered
>>>>that the reverse is true. For instance, 100 grams of raw wild
>>>>Atlantic salmon contains 1.115 DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), while
>>>>the farmed version contains .293.  Also, 100 grams of raw wild Coho
>>>>salmon contains .656 DHA while the farmed version contains .821.
>>>>So, are we truly better off eating the farmed version if we're
>>>>after more DHA?

Text response:
>>>It might depend on the time of year the wild salmon is caught. There
>>>is a substaintial seasonal variation in fatty acid content. The
>>>typical quoted value in the literature is that farmed fish have
>>>about i/3 the fatty acid content compared to their wild
>>>counterparts.Perhaps, the fish farmers have altered the feed to
>>>increase the fatty acid content?

Text:
>>>> As regards salmon as king (or queen) of omega 3's, the USDA
>>>>Nutrient Database reports that raw Atlantic mackerel contains more
>>>>DHA (1.401g) per 100 grams than either farmed or raw wild Atlantic
>>>>salmon! So,is Atlantic mackerel the true monarch?

Text response:
>>>Mackerel is always the highest in tables of values.

Text:
>>>> Lastly, does anyone know why the USDA Nutrient Database does not
>>>>include EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) values?

Text response:
>>>I've found the USDA database to be spotty on some foods. Tuna, I
>>>know includes EPA. Oats on the other hand, is very sparse for fatty
>>>acids.

Kirt:
>The USDA nutrient stuff can only be a rough/crude guide concerning
>wild seafoods. Seafood, esp fatty fish, are _extremely_ seasonal.
>Farmed fish are overfed and pen-raised (often identifyable by their
>weak-looking and under-developed tails relative to their wild
>brethren). The salmon feeds are getting more and more like chicken
>feeds, and the industry is probably soon going to be embracing the
>"medication route" to deal with the inevitable problems found in their
>more and more "domesticated" salmon. I'm thrilled that consumers are
>going for the _incredibly_ fatty farmed stuff--keeps the price
>pressure off the wild. If nutritional analysis finds more of the
>currently favored nutrients (EPA, etc) in farmed salmon, all the
>better, but I would not easily be convinced that farmed is better in
>any way. I wouldn't be surprised if EPA more or less disappeared from
>farmed fish down the line (as feeds get worse and worse), just as
>seems to have happened in commercial dry-lot beef (as Schmid reports).
>Note that the fat in farmed salmon goes rancid (or very off-flavored
>at least!) almost immediately and gets worse and worse, whereas, even
>the fattiest of wild salmon last for many days before developing off
>flavors, and even then the rancidity is limited to the fat/oil exposed
>to the atmosphere. Of course, from my POV, I put a much higher
>standard on flavor than nutritional charts, but it is interesting that
>instinctos favor the fishes which max out on oil content, and thus
>DHEA, EPA, etc. Still, the farmed stuff tastes funny and often one>
>tastes the funny flavor the next morning on their tongue, notices
>pimples (which carry the off odor), eye crud, ear wax, etc etc. I
>don't trust it at all. Wild salmon, except for the "Eskimo farts" and
>cheesy shits, seems to digest really cleanly.

>An interesting contrast is the Japanese farmed yellowtail (YT) (found
>thawed at high-brow sushi bars): the YT is fed almost exclusively
>sardines (and similar) fish, often frozen/thawed. The fat content of
>these YT is very high (very tasty!) and has only a slightly off-flavor
>(which I am unable to guess whether due to the YT itself being
>frozen/thawed or because it is farmed per say). Contrast this with the
>wild yellowtail found on SCal and Baja seafood markets, which is
>always a crap shoot of flavors and fat content, but when you hit, it
>is lovelier than any farmed yellowtail. Oh, of course, frozen/thawed
>fish goes bad really fast too.)

>Having eaten wild ten-day-ripened salmon (svereal ounces before the
>stop) for dinner tonight, my take on these matters cannot be entirely
>trusted :) esp my lack of concern about the endangered species
>stuff... :(

>Again, thanks for sharing, and feel free to share any of this with
>your list.

Best, Peter
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