Salmon is a large meat-eating fish that spends part of its time in freshwater and part in the oceans. There are many varieties of salmon, living along the coasts of both the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Only one variety lives in the Atlantic, whereas in the Pacific there are twelve varieties.

Nowadays, a large part of the salmon eaten, however, is not wild, but is from fish farms. A simple rule of thumb is that over 99% of Atlantic Salmon available on the world market are farmed. By contrast, over 80% of Pacific Salmon are wild-caught.