Depending on the place it comes from, salmon is usually a very sustainable protein supply.
Since salmon comply with a reasonably predictable migration sample and journey in massive colleges, fishers will merely drop a “passive web” in a bay and look forward to fish to swim by way of. Ray Hilborn, PhD, a marine biologist and fisheries science professor at The University of Washington, explains that this implies the business has a decrease carbon footprint than different fisheries.
Bycatch additionally is not as a lot of a priority with salmon fishing. Most bycatch occurs when nets are launched deep into offshore waters, scooping up a wide range of species (a few of which is perhaps threatened or endangered) within the course of. Since salmon nets are normally deployed nearer to the floor—and additional inland—the chance of catching different species is way decrease.
Alaska, the place most wild salmon is caught within the U.S., additionally has strict guidelines round how a lot fishing can happen every season. Researchers throughout the state monitor salmon populations year-round to find out the well being of assorted shares. They use these observations to set catch limits, making certain that fishers do not take extra salmon in a single season than can naturally reproduce.
Because of this strict monitoring, Hilborn says that “there are extra salmon within the ocean now than at any time in historical past, so far as we all know.”