What does wild caught salmon mean in Alaska?

Wild caught salmon means salmon that grew up in open water and were caught there, as opposed to salmon raised to market size in a pen or a tank. In the United States it is a defined label rather than a marketing phrase, and every salmon in Alaska's commercial harvest meets it, because Alaska bans finfish farming.

The label is a federal rule about method of production. It says nothing about species, freshness or where in the ocean a fish was caught, and it counts hatchery-born fish as wild. Those three points explain most of what the word does and does not tell a buyer.

The legal definition

The definition sits in USDA's country-of-origin labeling rules for fish and shellfish, 7 CFR Part 60, in force since 2005. Wild fish are "naturally-born or hatchery-originated fish or shellfish released in the wild, and caught, taken, or harvested from non-controlled waters or beds." Farm-raised fish are those "harvested in controlled environments, including ocean-ranched (e.g., penned) fish."

The same rules fix the wording. A retailer's label must say "wild caught", "wild", "farm-raised" or "farmed". The regulation names "ocean caught", "caught at sea" and "line caught" as designations that are not acceptable substitutes, so a phrase about where or how a fish was caught does not stand in for the wild line.

Why every Alaska salmon qualifies

Alaska banned finfish farming, salmon included, in 1990. The statute, AS 16.40.210, reads: "A person may not grow or cultivate finfish in captivity or under positive control for commercial purposes." The state's constitution adds the management rule behind the fishery, that fish "shall be utilized, developed, and maintained on the sustained yield principle."

So a salmon landed by the Alaska fleet is wild by law, whichever of the five species it is. Farmed salmon in American stores comes from outside Alaska, and the most familiar farmed salmon is a different species: NOAA Fisheries notes that commercial fishing for Atlantic salmon is prohibited in the United States and "only farm-raised Atlantic salmon are found in U.S. seafood markets." Imports, farmed and wild, run large: NOAA's Fisheries of the United States 2023 counts 752.2 million pounds of imported salmon fillets and steaks that year, worth $4.5 billion, plus 293.8 million pounds of whole salmon.

Hatchery fish are wild under the label

This is the part of the definition that surprises people. Alaska runs 28 salmon hatcheries, 25 of them private nonprofits funded mainly by selling a share of their own returns, according to ADF&G's Alaska Salmon Fisheries Enhancement Annual Report, 2025. A hatchery raises juveniles and releases them. They grow at sea like any other salmon and are caught in the same fisheries. ADF&G draws the line the same way the federal rule does: hatchery fish are "reared in a hatchery to a juvenile stage and released," while farmed fish are "reared in captivity to market size for sale," which "is not legal in Alaska."

The hatchery share is large and very uneven by species. In 2025 hatchery fish made up 34% of the statewide commercial harvest, 65.7 million of 193.8 million fish, and 26% of its ex-vessel value (preliminary figures). By species the share was 83% for chum, 40% for pink, 34% for Chinook, 28% for coho and 1% for sockeye. All of it is sold as wild.

A worked example from the harvest

The two ends of that range sit on this site's own pages. In Prince William Sound, hatchery fish were 84% of the 2025 commercial harvest, per ADF&G. The area's 2025 pink catch was 44.5 million fish averaging 3.2 pounds at a preliminary ex-vessel price of $0.35 a pound, $49.9 million at the boat as ADF&G reports it. Roughly five of every six fish in the Sound's commercial harvest started life in a hatchery.

Bristol Bay is the other end. Its 2025 sockeye harvest was 41.2 million fish averaging 5.1 pounds at $1.03 a pound, $214.3 million at the boat, and sockeye statewide was 1% hatchery. A Sound pink and a Bristol Bay sockeye carry the same wild label. The species name and the price are what separate them; the five species guide covers how each one is sold.

The table above is the season by management area, from ADF&G's Blue Sheet. The pink salmon page carries the species where the hatchery share matters most, and what is ex-vessel price explains the boat prices quoted here and why they arrive a season late.

Where the label is required, and where it is not

The rule binds retailers, defined by reference to the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, and it reaches internet and home-delivery sales. It exempts food service: restaurants, cafeterias, bars and the salad bars and delis inside stores. It also excludes processed fish, and the regulation lists smoked salmon, canned salmon and sushi among its examples. A salmon fillet at a supermarket seafood counter must say wild or farm-raised. The same fish canned, smoked or plated at a restaurant falls outside the requirement.

The Run reports Alaska's commercial harvest and prices as ADF&G publishes them. It does not rate products or brands.