Are wild salmon extinct? Why are domesticated fish on the shelves? What about the loot? (7 photos)

Today, more than 50% of all seafood on the shelves, including shellfish and crustaceans, are carefully raised by humans. Yes, just like farmed bulls! But why are you and I forced to eat domesticated fish? Have all the wild salmon, all the trout and pink salmon gone extinct?





Don't eat me, you'll need me later!

Fortunately, fish from the large salmon family have not yet become extinct in the wild. But they really strive for this. In almost every region you can find a weak link that is on the verge of extinction. For example, Atlantic salmon, aka everyone’s favorite salmon. According to the official status, these fish are “near vulnerable.” It seems that they are far from extinction, but if you dig deeper, the following will be revealed.



In many countries, only sport fishing or quota fishing is allowed for Atlantic salmon. In the first case, the fish is released after it has been caught and photographed. In the second, a person pays a decent amount, which will be used to restore the species.

This status was assigned to salmon more than 25 years ago. And all this time the fishing did not stop! Yes, its quantity was reduced several times: from 1979 to 1990, the catch of wild Atlantic salmon fell from a record 4,000,000 to 700,000 individuals. But besides fishing, there are other factors that affect numbers: ocean pollution, loss of natural habitat and poaching.





My mother told me: don’t sit hunched over at the computer!

Things are pretty much the same with the rest of the family. They don’t seem to disappear, but they are always on the edge. If people today had not switched to eating “domesticated” salmon, wild fish might have already disappeared.



It’s in cages like these that fish are raised—they’re just huge nets placed in the sea.

Has humanity really realized its mistakes and is striving to correct them? Not really. Restoring wild fish populations is more of a by-product than a true goal. The main reason for replacing wild fish with farmed fish is that breeding expensive species is a very profitable business!



When I hesitated to fight off my classmates and finally shared crackers with them.

First, fish ready to spawn are caught in the wild. Then the resulting eggs are incubated in special aquariums. This process is labor-intensive: the fry develop first in fresh water, and then in salt water. They are fed with special granules, everything according to science, thanks to which such domestic fish turn out fatter and to some extent healthier than their wild counterparts.



They also milk fish from farms! Such caviar is quite expensive, but you know for sure that it was not obtained by poachers.

The entire growing process, from caviar to a fish ready to go to market, takes approximately 3 years. The timing varies depending on the type. As a result, farmers receive a ready-made, homogeneous population that does not need to spend a lot of time catching. Swimming pools are always at hand.



The buyer, in turn, receives the freshest and, as a rule, healthier products. After all, no one studies every fish from a multi-ton catch - what it eats and what makes it sick. And farmers value their pets very much. So there is no need to be afraid of domestic fish in the markets - it is much better than wild!