Originally Posted by
Fat Boy
I try to get wild Alaskan salmon. Atlantic farmed stuff is a hell of a lot cheaper...almost 1/2 the price. I wonder what the real nutritional difference is. It's really hard to know.
I had Sablefish (Black Cod) last night. Pretty damned good stuff. It's a fatty fish, like salmon, that's loaded with Omega-3's.
I'm not a big fan of tilapia, but I end up buying it. I make all of the meals for our family, and if I make fish for the kids, it has to be pretty mild stuff. They just won't eat the good stuff. If I'm doing fish, I'll make tilapia for them and salmon for my wife and me. It's still a hell of a lot better food than McDonalds or whatever else a lot of kids get fed. Last night was salmon patties for the kids, which they do eat (and like). They won't do fillets, though, and it kills me to throw out a bunch of expensive fish.
Yeah, I buy both wild and farmed salmon because buying strictly wild would be cost-prohibitive on my budget, but I am cognisant of the fact that in one case I am buying a really healthy fish product with all the nutritional benefits of a fish raised in the wild, and in the other I am just buying a healthier alternative to red or white meat, but that I still enjoy eating. Either way I am better off than choosing beef or pork, but with wild salmon I am also getting the additional benefits of both higher amounts of omega-3 fatty acids and a more beneficial mix of fatty acids as well.
Black cod (or sablefish) has only very recently been available as farmed, and so far the farming has been marked by very low survival and production rates (only about 5% I am told), so nearly all of the black cod you see in markets is still caught wild. This will probably change as the fisheries develop better methods and practices, but the upside at this point is that the farmed black cod so far are being raised mostly on cultivated plankton rather than a soy/corn mix, and they are raised in large ocean-based pens, so the fish should remain a relatively healthier fish product with all the benefits of the fish caught in the wild.
Also, since domestically farmed salmon have developed such a poor reputation relative to wild caught with regards to their nutritional value, we may actually see a market opening up for a "healthier" farmed salmon that are fed a more natural and organic diet rather than the soy/corn-based one currently is use, that also eliminates the need for many of the chemicals and antibiotic as well. This could lead to a catagory of farmed salmon the are nutritionally relatively close to wild salmon. We will see.