Migratory fishes | Atlantic Salmon

DELICACY

Salmon – a fine dish and delicacy

Since time immemorial the Salmon had an outstanding significance for the nutrition of the people living in central Europe.

Geologically the center of Europe is a iodine deficiency area. Only by eating migratory fishes, Salmon and Sea Trout in the first place, people of the time were able to cover their essential need for iodine. Goiter and other metabolic diseases and even mental deficiency could be avoided only by consuming the delicious meat of these fishes rich in iodine. It is not too far-fetched to state, that salmon played a crucial role for the development of humans and human civilization in Central Europe. Nowadays this requirement doesn’t exist anymore and Salmon is regarded as a delicacy.

The production of farmed salmon on a large scale has caused the prices to drop and for many people it has become an ordinary thing to consume farmed salmon. At the same time real wild salmon has become practically unavailable. Meat quality of a farmed salmon cannot be compared with the quality of the wild salmon. They differ in fat content, composition of fatty acids and taste.

The salmon louse (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) is natural parasite of salmon. In salmon growing pens salmon lice are reproducing perfectly due to the high density of fish. Wild salmon that pass the salmon farms on their migration to the open North Atlantic Ocean become heavily infected with these parasites because of the high population density of salmon lice in the vicinity of these pens.

Escaping fish from salmon farms in open sea pens also threaten the natural salmon population. The escaped fish take part in natural spawning but their offspring is far less fit for the challenge of a long migration to the North Atlantic.

Wild salmon stocks in Germany that reach historic dimensions of abundance could be sustainably exploited as a source for finest culinary delicacies.