Salmon - member of the Salmonidae, a family of marine fish that spawn in freshwater, including the salmons, the trouts, and the chars. Many authorities place the whitefish and the grayling among the Salmonidae, so similar are they in structure and habits. The Salmonidae are the most highly developed of the herringlike fishes, characterized by soft, rayless adipose fins, and are denizens of cold, oxygen-rich waters. In general they are silvery in the sea and more brightly hued in brooks and lakes.The Salmon Family

There are three genera of Salmonidae: Salmo, Oncorhynchus, and Salvelinus. Unfortunately, the common names of the species do not correspond to the natural divisions. The true, or black-spotted, trout is actually a Salmo, and the speckled, or brook, trout of the E United States is a Salvelinus and should more properly be called a char, as similar fishes in Europe are.

The American species of Salmo were originally split by the Mississippi basin, and were represented in the east by the Atlantic salmon and in the west by the rainbow and cutthroat trouts. The Atlantic salmon was a plentiful source of food for the Native Americans and the colonists, but its populations have declined. This salmon is a large fish (15 lb/6.8 kg average) found along the Atlantic coast of NE America, in Greenland, and in Europe. When in the sea it feeds on crustaceans, but as it approaches the the large rivers to spawn, it changes its diet to small fish. A landlocked species, the Sebago salmon, is found in Maine. Of the many races of cutthroat trout, some are now extinct; the greenback trout of the Colorado Rockies was recently rediscovered. The steelhead trout is believed to be the silvery saltwater phase of the colorful rainbow trout. Rainbows and cutthroats are known to hybridize, and a new species, the Gila trout, combining characteristics of both, has been discovered in New Mexico. The brown trout, introduced from Europe in 1883, requires warmer waters than the native species and is important in fish-management programs.

The genus Oncorhynchus is comprised of the five species of Pacific salmon, found from S California to Alaska. These fish are the most important commercial species. Canning centers are located on the Columbia River and on Puget Sound and in British Columbia, Siberia, and N Japan. The largest and commercially most important of the Pacific salmon is the chinook (or quinnat or king) salmon, which averages 20 lb (9 kg) and may reach 100 lb (45 kg). It is found from the Bering Sea to Japan and S California and is marketed fresh, smoked, and canned. The white-fleshed fish of this normally red-fleshed species have become highly prized in the restaurant trade. The blueback salmon (called sockeye in Oregon and redfish in Alaska) has firm reddish flesh and forms the bulk of the canned salmon. Also of economic importance are the humpback, or pink, salmon, the smallest of the group; and the silver, or coho, salmon, important in the fall catch because of its late spawning season. The meat of the dog salmon is palatable when fresh or smoked.

The genus Salvelinus includes the various European chars; the common brook, or speckled, trout, a popular game fish of E North America, introduced in the West; and the Dolly Varden, or bull, trout, a similar western form. A fourth genus, Cristivomer, contains one species, the common lake trout, and one subspecies, the siscowet, or fat trout. These are deepwater fishes of North American lakes, more sluggish, less migratory, and bulkier than the other Salmonidae; individuals have been recorded at 100 lb (45 kg). A fish called the splake has been produced by crossing the speckled trout and the lake trout.

Life Cycle

The basic life pattern of the Salmonidae begins when, within the first year or two of life, the fish travels downstream to the sea, where it grows to its full size. After reaching maturity (one to nine years) it returns to its hatching site to spawn. The Pacific salmon are famed for their grueling journeys of hundreds of miles to their headwater breeding grounds. When they begin this trip they are in prime condition, but they cease eating when they leave the sea and arrive months later, exhausted and battered by their fight upstream against swift currents and over falls. Those that survive the trip and escape fishermen and predatory animals spawn with their last strength and then die. These salmon are taken at the mouths of large rivers, as they begin their upstream migration. The Atlantic salmon and the trouts spawn more than once. Most trouts migrate to the sea if there is a cold-water connection, but also will sometimes live and reproduce if landlocked.

Conservation

Because of such human activities as overfishing, development, dam building, logging, and farm irrigation, Pacific salmon populations have greatly declined, and many species are now listed as rare and endangered. The United States and Canada negotiated a conservation agreement in 1999 that includes setting catch limits based upon ongoing scientific assessments of salmon population levels. In addition, multiple-approach conservation efforts are under way in Washington and Oregon states to restore the salmon runs. For reasons less well understood, and despite international conservation measures, Atlantic salmon populations have also sharply declined. The desirability of salmon as food fish has led to their being raised in aquaculture.

A halibut is a type of flatfish from the family of the righteye flounders (Pleuronectidae). This name is derived from Dutch heilbot. Halibut live in both the North Pacific and the North Atlantic Oceans, and are highly regarded food fish.

Physical characteristics

The halibut is the largest of all flatfish; the Atlantic halibut, Hippoglossus hippoglossus, has been known to attain a weight of over 620 pounds (280 kg) and can be eight feet (2.6 m) or greater in length. A Halibut this size was captured near Stamsund in Lofoten (Norway) the 7 of June 2006. A very large halibut is known as a "barn door". All halibut are born male. After attaining a weight of about 100 pounds, the males turn female. Like the flounders, adult halibut typically have both eyes on the right side of the head. Halibut have speckled or brown top (right) sides and creamy white under (left) sides, and can be distinguished from other flatfish by the tail. Atlantic and Pacific halibut have distinctly different bone structures with that of Atlantic halibut being easier to cut.

Diet

Halibut feed on almost any animal they can fit in their mouths: animals found in their stomachs include sand lance, octopus, crab, salmon, hermit crabs, lamprey, sculpin, cod, pollack and flounder. Halibut can be found at depths as shallow as a few metres to hundreds of metres deep, and although they spend most of their time near the bottom, halibut will move up in the water column to feed. In most ecosystems the halibut is near the top of the marine food chain. In the North Pacific the only common predators on halibut are the sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus), the orca whale (Orcinus orca), and the salmon shark (Lamna ditropis).

Halibut fishery

The commercial halibut fishery in the North Pacific dates to the late 19th century and today is one the largest and most lucrative fisheries in the region. In Canadian and U.S. waters of the North Pacific, halibut are taken by longline, using chunks of octopus ("devilfish") or other bait on circle hooks attached at regular intervals to a weighted line which can extend for several miles across the bottom. Typically the fishing vessel hauls gear after several hours to a day has passed.

Careful international management of Pacific halibut is necessary, as the species occupies the waters of the United States, Canada, Russia, and possibly Japan, and is a slow-maturing fish. Halibut do not reproduce until age eight, when they are approximately 30 inches (76 cm) long, so commercial capture of fish below this length is an unsustainable practice and is against U.S. and Canadian regulations. The halibut fishery in the Pacific is managed by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC).

For most of its modern duration the commercial halibut fishery operated as a derby-style fishery where regulators declared time slots when the fishery was open (typically 24-48 hours at a time) and fisherman raced to catch as many pounds as they could within that window. This approach accommodated unlimited participation in the fishery while allowing regulators to control the quantity of fish caught annually by controlling the number and timing of openings. The approach frequently led to unsafe fishing as openings were necessarily set in advance and fisherman compelled economically to leave port virtually regardless of the weather. The approach also provided fresh halibut to the markets for only several weeks each year.

In 1995, regulators in the United States implemented a quota-based fishery by allocating individual fishing quotas (IFQs) to existing fishery participants based on each vessel's documented historical catch. IFQs grant holders a specific proportion of each year's total allowable catch (TAC) as determined by regulators and can be fished at any time during the 9 month open season. The IFQ system improved both the safety of the fishery and the quality of the product by providing a stable flow of fresh halibut to the marketplace. Critics of the program suggest that, since IFQs are a saleable commodity and the fish a public resource, the IFQ system gave a public resource to the private sector. Would-be fisherman who were not part of the initial IFQ allocation are also critical of the program saying that the capital costs to fishery entry are now too high.

There is also a significant sport fishery in Alaska and British Columbia where halibut are a prized game and food fish. Sport fisherman use large rods and reels with line weights from 80 to 150 pound test. Halibut are very strong, thus in both commercial and sport fisheries large halibut (over 50 to 100 pounds (20 to 50 kg)) are often shot or otherwise subdued before they are brought onto the boat. The sport fishery in Alaska is one of the key elements to the state's summer tourism economy. Halibut are typically broiled, deep fat fried or lightly grilled while fresh. The filets can also be smoked but this method is more difficult with halibut meat than it is with salmon, due to the ultra-low fat content of halibut. Eaten fresh, the meat has a very clean taste and requires little seasoning.

Halibut have been an important food source to Native Americans and Canadian First Nations for thousands of years and continue to be a key element to many coastal subsistence economies. The management of the halibut resource to accommodate the competing interests of commercial, sport, and subsistence users is a contentious current issue.

The Alantic Fishery of halibut has been extremely depleted through overfishing to such an extent that it may possibly be declared an endangered species. Almost all halibut now bought on the East coast is now Pacific halibut.