Atlantic salmon (Bio)

General

Salmonids

There are many species that belong to the Salmonids or (Protacanthopterygii). Did you know trouts, smelts, and even pikes belong to the Salmon family? Salmonids occur in either salt and freshwater. Most species are well-specialized predators and live in temperate climate zones.  Salmonids are ray-finned fishes and can be distinguished by the ‘fat-fin’ between the backfin and tail. They do not have spikes and the pelvic and pectoral fin are separated.

Salmonids are sold farmed and wildcaught. Wildcaught salmon comes from the Pacific. Almost all Atlantic salmon on sold is farmed. Since the 90s the farming of salmon increased dramatically. Norway, chile, Scotland, Canada and the Faroe islands are important farming countries for salmon. In both, wild-caught and farmed salmon problems in sustainability are prevalent.

Atlantic salmon (Bio)

There is only one salmon species in the Atlantic Ocean: the Atlantic salmon. This species reaches lengths of 71 to 67 cm on average and weighs 3.6 to 5.4 kg. Salmon are anadromous, meaning that they are born in fresh waters (rivers and streams) and migrate seaward after 1-4 years where they live until they are sexually mature. When sexually mature, the salmon migrate back to their natal stream, the stream they were born. This sometimes requires them to migrate large distances upstream, up to thousand kilometres. Atlantic salmon can have multiple spawning events in a lifetime. Atlantic salmon is a very popular fish in aquaculture. Due to overfishing, pollution and river obstructions such as dams, sluices and weirs, wild populations of Atlantic salmon have gone extinct in many places. Atlantic salmon used to be very common in the Rhine river in the Netherlands however, nowadays they are very rare. Re-introduction programs are being carried out in many places by restocking with adult individuals, improving the water quality  and by removing migratory barriers.