Everything you need to know about the ray-finned fish
Getting Hooked on Salmon BY SHAUNA L. NOSLER | ILLUSTRATIONS BY REBEKAH NOLAN, FLATLAND KITCHEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALAN LOVEWELL, COURTESY OF EDIBLE MONTEREY BAY
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very year come mid-May, in south central Alaska, there is a massive exodus. But it’s not snowbirds vacating their homes in search of warmer weather—I mean, why would they leave when the temperature is teetering near 60? Mild by Midwest standards, but darn near sauna-like for Alaskans. Still, the exodus happens … and it’s been happening at the same time every year since the Ice Ages.
The rise and fall of the king Alaska’s Prince William Sound is home to the Copper River—a glacial-fed river with a nearly 35-mile-wide gorge where the river dumps over 500,000 cubic feet of water per second into the Gulf of Alaska, and where thousands of young salmon leave their birthplace in the Copper to feed at sea for the next few years. Then, some two to seven years later, the now-adult salmon leave the Gulf to make their
300-mile-long journey home to spawn—an arduous task fueled by their high concentration of omega-3 fatty acids, an inimitable trait that makes salmon, especially those from the Copper River, one of the most coveted of all seafoods, worldwide. The Copper River produces three types of salmon: king (aka Chinook), sockeye and coho. All three can come with a price tag more than double that of the same species from other locations—the king landing the highest price at $35–40 a pound. But it wasn’t always like this. Thirty years ago, most Copper River salmon was sold to Japan, where demand was (and still is) high but export prices were excruciatingly low. So low that many fishermen docked their boats in search of more lucrative, land-based occupations. Nowadays, thanks in part to what many call savvy marketing and brilliant PR, the catch from the Copper is one of the most profitable in the country, let alone the world. But unfortunately, there’s a declining population as fewer edibleIndy.com
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