text: Chinook / King (Oncorhynchs tshawytscha) which is the largest, fattiest, and most flavorful may weigh up to 125 pounds. Flesh may vary from ivory to deep red depending on diet.
  Jack Salmon A Chinook that has returned to fresh water a year or two early and is still a smaller size. Note that in Europe this name is used for a pike perch similar to our walleye.
  Chum (Oncorhynchus keta) are smaller salmon weighing up to 10 pounds with creamy pink to medium red flesh that has a mild, delicate flavor.
  Pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) is the smallest salmon, weighing up to 5 pounds and the most plentiful. The flesh is light pink and delicate in flavor.
  Coho (Silver, O. kisutch) weighs up to 15 pounds with a medium lean firm flesh with a fine texture and consistently red color.
  Sockeye (Red, O. nerka) weighs up to 7 pounds at maturity. It is highly sought after for its very lean deep red flesh.
  Masu (yamame, O. masou) - Asia only.
  Amago (biwamasu, O. rhodurus) - Asia only.
  Seema (O. masou) - Asia only.
  Atlantic (Salmo salar) is no longer marketed wild in any quantity, the population having been decimated on both sides of the Atlantic by pollution and overfishing. It is the preferred farm salmon on the West Coast of North America.
  Salmon are both fast growing and in great demand by consumers which makes them prime subjects for fish farming. Farming does have ecological impacts on the wild fishery, particularly from escaped fish (greatly reduced in recent years) and an economic impact from reducing the price wild salmon can fetch.
  Many food writers campaign against farmed salmon and urge you to buy only wild salmon - but lets look at reality. The wild catch, worldwide, is less than 1 million tons. Worldwide farm production is well over 2 million tons. Without farmed salmon wild salmon would be so expensive it would all be shipped to Japan where an absurdly high price is considered a major enhancement to dining pleasure.
  Farmed salmon are predominantly Atlantic salmon, even in Pacific coast farms, because they are less aggressive than Pacific salmon and produce a higher yield. A fair amount of Pacific salmon is still farmed and is considered preferable because ecological damage from fish escaping into the Pacific is very small.
  Salmon flesh is normally a light gray color, but consumers demand the red color of returning ocean fish. To achieve this the farms add carotenoid dyes to the feed of maturing fish. These are the same dyes wild fish acquire from eating crustaceans.
  For grilling, many people prefer farmed salmon over wild because it is fattier and easier to grill. Farmed salmon is generally free of tapeworms, nematodes and other parasites.
  The company AquaBounty Technologies of Maynard, Massachusetts has developed a "transgenic" farmed salmon that grows twice as fast normal salmon by modifying its genetic code. They have been growing these fish at an inland farm in Panama that can produce only about 100 tons a year.
  The FDA has not yet (2013) approved these fish for sale in the United States, but approval is expected soon, despite strong public protest. The FDA has rated these fish safe for consumption - but there is simply no data on the long term effects of GM foods.
  A major concern is ecological. Should these fish escape into the oceans, they could very severely effect, even destroy, wild stocks. For this reason, only inland farms are likely to be approved in the United States - but AquaBounty intends to sell eggs to China, where regulation is a joke. They'll be in the oceans within months.
  Salmon are generally quite large so are usually sold as steaks or fillets rather than whole fish. Some of the Asian markets here in Los Angeles sell whole "salmon" up to about 30 inches long, but these are mostly farmed steelhead trout that have never been to sea. Split salmon heads are also sold in Asian markets for soup stock, and some provide the head along with all the fins and bones the fillets have been removed from. The head and bones provide a very substantial salmon flavored stock with a large amount of oil. When the oil is separated the stock is without any of the orange salmon color.