Here in the Pacific Northwest, Salmon are more than a commodity. Salmon have been returning to our rivers and streams for thousands of years and are emblematic of our stewardship of this wild and bountiful land. This year, the Salmon returned in great numbers and we felt blessed.

An anadromous* fish, salmon hatch in freshwater streams so small you would doubt a fish could live there. They travel downstream to the Columbia River Estuary (which serves as a nursery) where they eat the benthic infauna** for a couple years and then migrate out into the salty sea. After several years of growing in the Pacific Ocean, they are drawn to swim upstream to their spawning grounds where they die adding life-giving detritus to the forests, wildlife, and streams.

Many First Nations Peoples have ancient stories of origin explaining how the Salmon came to the People. A Snuneymuxw First Nation story tells of a chief’s daughter marrying a Dog (Chum) Salmon and promising her father to return each spring. Ceremonially, the First Salmon of the year are blessed and thanked for returning to the People. Think of how miraculous this huge bounty of food was for the People! It makes manna in the desert look like poor fare indeed.

Salmon petroglyph at Jack Point in British Columbia

The North Coast Indigenous Peoples believed that Salmon were humans with eternal life who lived under the ocean and put on their Salmon disguises in Spring, offering themselves to the villagers as food. The tribes believed that when entire fish skeletons were returned to the sea, the spirits would rise again as Salmon people. In this way, the cycle was preserved. Since the villagers feared that the Salmon people would not be treated respectfully by White people who had no knowledge of the taboos and regulations, they did not want to sell Salmon to the first White men. (My emphasis)

Well, their first response not to sell the White Man Salmon would have been the correct one. (Actually, Lewis and Clark and company refused the smoked salmon the Clatsop offered the expedition force, preferring dog meat instead to the bemusement of the Indians.)

For 11, 000 years, Celilo Falls in the Columbia River Gorge was the greatest fishery on Earth with an estimate run of 15 to 20 million Salmon. Indigenous Peoples from as far away as Alaska, the Great Plains, California, and the Southwest came to trade obsidian, buffalo meat, and pipestone for smoked Salmon. Celilo is still the most continually inhabited site in North America.

Fulfilling the misgivings of the first Clatsops, the White Man did not respect the Salmon or Celilo Falls. In just six hours in March of 1957, Celilo Falls was drowned behind The Dalles dam.

We lost some Salmon people—notably the June Hogs which were 60  to 100 pound summer Salmon from three to six feet long. They came to the foot of dams, built without fish ladders, for several years and then came no more. The one below was caught in Astoria in 1925.

We could have had June Hogs instead.

Now the Wild Salmon is threatened again by the White Man and his gift for commodifying the sacred. The first Genetically Modified (GM) food animal now under consideration by the US FDA is a super-salmon.

The only research data upon which the FDA is attempting to rubberstamp GM super-salmon is solely from Aqua Bounty Technologies Inc.  The U.S. FDA is holding a 14 day public comment period, giving outside scientists and consumers the “bums rush” in order to allow the Canadian corporation Aqua Bounty Technologies Inc. to quickly launch their lucrative super-salmon farming plan.

This super-sized fish is a cross between Sockeye Salmon and an eel-like fish which grows much faster and bigger than the Wild Salmon. Biologists worry about how this much larger fish will interact with the Wild Salmon since these fish are known to be aggressive predators. Compare the fish below and bet on who might crowd the other out.

GM super-salmon at 750 grams; Wild Salmon at 150 grams.

The FDA has refused to require labeling of Genetically Modified Salmon on the premise that the product is “not materially different” than Wild Salmon in taste, texture, and nutrition. Consumer groups are demanding labeling in order to allow personal choice which is exactly what the Canadian corporation Aqua Bounty Technologies does not want because they know that most folks would not eat it. (A Consumers Union nationwide poll demonstrated that 95% of respondents felt that GM animals should be labeled with 78% strongly agreeing.)

Aqua Bounty Technologies Inc. was planning to raise its super-sized salmon in Panama. However, Panama is a signatory of the Cartagena Protocol which allows genetic manipulation solely for research in a confined space and prohibits release of modified fish into the natural environment for commercial purposes.  

“A commission of the Authority on Aquatic Resources of Panama (ARAP) ratified the order [January 11, 2010] to destroy the [30,000] genetically modified salmon stocks produced by the company Aqua Bounty Technologies, in order to comply with the country’s international commitments.”

The FDA is yet one more U.S. regulatory agency that is emasculated and underfunded. It also appears to be bending over backwards to please the corporations that it is supposed to police. This is totally unacceptable considering all of the disquieting news over our corporate food supply lately concerning the billions of eggs that are mass produced in filthy plants that are only required to be inspected once every nine years.

To keep unlabeled GM salmon from your dinner plate, you may add your name to mine on a petition from Sustainable Food which asks President Obama not to allow the FDA to approve the super-salmon and to seek more scientific research before declaring it safe to eat as recommended by the FDA Advisory Panel.

*The unusual ability to originate in freshwater, live in salt water and then return to freshwater to spawn. The reason they can do this is that, once they hit the mouth of the river, they do not eat at all before they make their long journey, spawn, and die.

**Bugs in the mud (nematodes and harpacticoid copepods mostly)

I used the Columbia River system for this article, knowing that there are--or sadly have been--Wild Salmon around the world.

Links are provided for salmonaresacred.org and foodandwaterwatch.org. Just click on the pictures.