King Salmon or Chinook salmon is a variety of salmonidae family fish, famous for its large size. King Salmon is also known as Columbia River king salmon, Chavicha, black salmon and finally winter or spring salmon. The main fisheries specialized in commercial catch of king salmons situate on the West Coast of the North America, mainly on the north part of Pacific Ocean (Washington State, the U.S., Canada and Alaska State, the U.S.), they distribute King Salmon around the world.

The marking of King Salmon could change from light blue to green on the main surfaces with dark silver sides; it depends on the season and how far is King Salmon to the timing of adult entry into fresh water. Some of adult unites could reach 65 inches in length, but averagely it is from 32 to 36 inches (that’s about 1 meter long), or 20-40 pounds.
Upgraded fish traps and sport spinning are only the ways to catch the King Salmon, which easily rips usual fish-tackles. The reproduction of king salmons is not such easy process as it likes to be. King Salmon spends 2-4 years in the ocean waters before to go home – in river waters to spawn there. Commonly spawning time is the period between September and December. Spawning nests are those places where the king salmon deposit his eggs. Only 3-5% of deposited eggs survive than.
Cool waters of the Pacific Ocean, inhabited with plankton, seaweeds and also jellyfish which King Salmon likes more, are the best place for the King Salmon. River’s insects and amphipods are suitable for young unites but not adult King Salmon which has to acquire feed in the ocean.
Recently some scientist’s researches have showed interesting things – the population of King Salmons is slowly leaving California Bay waters where these unites have ranged for long time before and changing location for more north parts of Pacific Ocean. Biologist claims that the reasons of such migration process are hidden in negative effects of the global warming processes. The comfortable conditions for king salmon is cool and oxygenated water. The warming of ocean in 1-2 degrees by Fahrenheit could force the King Salmon leave tenth or even hundreds miles below.

Is there such a thing as organic fish? Surely all fish comes from the sea and eats whatever fish eat? How can we control that?

As far as I know, fish caught in the wild cannot be marketed as organic in the UK. However, several supermarkets and many independent organic retailers now stock organic trout and salmon produced in fish farms. Several types of farmed mussels and shellfish are also likely to become more widely available in the future.

In organic fish farming, many of the pesticides, dyes and antibiotics widely used in conventional fish farming are not permitted and so these fish products are generally accepted to be credible organic products by both the soil association and consumers.

However, from an animal welfare point of view, there is some controversy about allowing farmed fish to be labelled as organic. Organic principles demand that livestock (which includes fish) should be able to express its ‘natural’ behaviour pattern and be kept as close to natural stocking densities as possible. How can this be when they are kept in cages in either inland or in fish farms out at sea?

The true cost of fish farming

Fish farming seems like a practical solution to the problem of overfishing. Fish farming, however, is the cause of many problems. In the UK, its salmon thats most closely associated with farming – and its shortcomings. Public demand for cheaper food means that farmed salmon are often kept, for financial reasons, very densely stocked, with huge numbers of fish crammed into very little space. In this state, the fish can more easily become diseased, and these diseases can spread to wild fish. Huge amounts of antibiotics are required to keep the fish moderately healthy. Also a confidential study for the UKs top organic body highlighted gaps between its principles and the standards it accepted, BBC Newsnight reported.

Is organic fish sustainable?

Other problems are escapes, when farmed fish interbreed with wild fish and potentially weaken wild stocks, as well as pollution to the water and seabed around fish farms. Farmed salmon, which are carnivorous, eat three times their body weight in fish feed, which is made from other fish – not the best use of resources from an environmental point of view.