It seems like only yesterday that salmon was all the rage–the sure-fire local seafood choice on every restaurant menu in the state, and the darling of home cooks for its ease of preparation. Restaurants dressed it up in local condiments–maple glazes, blueberry salsas–and salmon was as Maine as lobster and crab.

Nowadays, all commercially available Atlantic salmon is farmed. Fish farming is controversial. Opponents slam farmed salmon as anti-wild, unhealthy, and uncool.

The only way you will dine on wild Atlantic salmon is if you catch one yourself in a lake, per the rules, season, and catch and size restrictions of Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW). Wild Atlantic salmon–the kind that migrate from our inland waterways such as the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers to the sea–is endangered thanks to over-fishing practices, hydroelectric dams, and pollution of spawning grounds, so it is against the law to harvest.

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