It was a very common fish species found in every river of Europe until about a century ago. It is known that some species entered the Rhein river from the Atlantic Ocean at that time and advanced to the springs at the foot of the Alps. However, their numbers have decreased very seriously due to increased overfishing with the Industrial Revolution, pollution of fresh water resources by industrial wastes, and the establishment of dam walls to block the paths of migrating fish.
The salmon is the most farmed aquatic animal (apart from the shrimp)as well as
the most eaten. It is said that Neanderthal Man ate salmon some 200,000 years ago.
