However, wild salmon are menaced by an array of other problems beyond aquaculture. Rising sea temperatures, dams impeding their migration, overfishing and hatcheries set up to enhance the harvest in fisheries (yes, using hatcheries to put more salmon in the rivers often results in fewer fish to catch) are all factors that contribute to dwindling numbers of wild salmon worldwide. Global populations of wild Atlantic salmon, for example, have fallen from between eight to ten million in the 1970s to between three to four million today.

Outdoor clothing giant Patagonia, a self-styled “activist company,” recently released the documentary Artifishal on YouTube. Directed by Josh Murphy, the film explores “wild salmon’s slide towards extinction” with a particular focus on the threats posed by hatcheries and fish farms.

“Technology is great in so many realms of human experience but when you try to apply manipulation and control of ecosystems through technology, you’re often successful early on but then problems creep in,” says conservation biologist Gary Meffe in the film.

Salmon are a “keystone species” in both the North Pacific and North Atlantic meaning that they play a unique role in the ecosystem. Connecting salt and freshwater, they bring the nutrients of the oceans far inland and are an irreplaceable source of food for animals like orcas and grizzly bears.

“They are a natural barometer for the health of the planet,” writes journalist Mark Kurlansky in his upcoming book Salmon and the Earth: the History of a Common Fate (published by Patagonia). That’s why the survival of wild salmon is such an important environmental challenge: it’s our relationship with nature that is at stake.

In Artifishal, ecologist and writer Carl Safina recounts the Greek myth of Icarus, the overambitious man who died because he flew too close to the sun with wings made of wax and feathers. “Humans believe they can do anything and everything all the time and this can-do attitude has gotten us very far [...] but there are limits and we don’t understand anything about those limits,” comments Safina. In other words, aquaculture risks of becoming today’s myth of Icarus.

“Humans have often thought of themselves as superior to nature but it has got us into a lot of trouble,” echoes Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard.

In nature, salmon eggs hatch in freshwater streams. After a period ranging from a few months to a couple of years, the fish, which at this stage is called “smolt,” migrate to the sea where they grow to sexual maturity. When it’s spawning time, salmon return to their natal rivers, often swimming upstream against strong currents. Most of them die shortly after they have spawned (many species of salmon are semelparous meaning they experience just one reproductive episode before death).