Landed mostly from July to September most pink salmon are canned. Its raw flesh has a light pink color. Copper River in Alaska is one of the earliest and most prized runs of sockeye. Sockeye are prized for their bright red flesh and firm texture. Identified by its silvery appearance, the coho or silver salmon is the smallest of the Pacific salmon.
Coho has a finely textured flesh with rich pink color.
It is available as a wild catch from June to November. As market demand rose, salmon farming took hold in neighboring Scotland, Ireland and Iceland. Domestic salmon farming, done mostly in Maine, is a very small part of the world's production which was nearly 500,000 tons by 1994 according to the University of Anchorage. Today, the salmon producing market is primarily dominated by Norway, Chile and Canada. From the chef's point of view, salmon has always been a prized product in the kitchen.