Fish Hatchery Management, 3rd edition

Chapter 16: Atlantic Salmon—Salmo salar

Kevin Kelsey, Paige Blaker, Jeff Hudson, and Jesse T. Trushenski

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781934874813.ch16

The Atlantic Salmon is the only salmon species native to the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic Salmon are native to coastal rivers on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, wild Atlantic Salmon runs are distributed from northern Spain to western Russia. In North America, Atlantic Salmon were likely found in all watersheds from as far south as the Hudson River in New York to the St. Croix River in the north (NRC Committee on Atlantic Salmon in Maine 2002). Highly productive runs once supported important subsistence and commercial harvests in North America, but Atlantic Salmon populations declined dramatically after European colonization under the compound pressures of overharvest, pollution, and habitat modification. Today, commercial and recreational fishing for Atlantic Salmon is prohibited in the USA, where the remaining stocks are protected under the Endangered Species Act (NMFS 2024). Most Canadian populations of Atlantic Salmon are similarly listed as threatened or endangered and protected under the Species at Risk Act, though some stocks continue to support recreational fisheries (COSEWIC 2010).

Although wild Atlantic Salmon are a species of conservation need in North America, domesticated Atlantic Salmon are one of the most widely cultured food fish in the world. Culture practices for Atlantic Salmon were developed in the United Kingdom for the purpose of stock enhancement (FAO 2009). Atlantic Salmon farming in net-pens/sea cages was first developed in Norway, and Norway continues to dominate Atlantic Salmon production today. Similar farming practices were subsequently adopted elsewhere around the world, most notably in Scotland, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Canada, Chile, and Australia. More than 2.7 million metric tons of farmed Atlantic Salmon are produced each year, representing roughly 70% of all salmon that are raised or caught worldwide (Pandey et al. 2023).