Salmon

Salt-roasted salmon Total time: 20 minutes Servings: 4 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus additional for serving 1 1/2 pounds salmon filet (1¼ to 1½-inch thick) center cut, skin on, cut into 4 equal pieces 8 large eggs, whites only About 4 cups kosher salt 1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a medium ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add the salmon, skin-side down, and cook until the skin begins to crisp, 2 to 3 minutes.

A rafting trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho isn't just about the water. Yes, there are about 100 rapids to shoot, but there's also time to take a dip in a hot spring, learn the history of the area and hike in canyons along the way. For rafting fans, Mountain Travel Sobek sweetens the pot this summer with a two-for-one promotion for a limited time on six-day trips. The trip, available on nine departure dates, begins in Stanley, where participants take a bus ride to the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area and put in to the river.

  Total time: 25 minutes Servings: 6 Note: The salmon-shiitake mixture also can be served in tartlet shells or stuffed into hard-cooked eggs. Several slices of white bread for toast points 1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps wiped clean 4 tablespoons butter 1 large shallot, minced 1 teaspoon tamari or soy sauce 1/3 cup crème fraîche 2 teaspoons coarse-grain mustard 1 small red pepper, seeded and finely diced 2 ounces wild smoked salmon, cut into strips about 1/4 inch wide, 1 inch long 3 tablespoons chopped chives, divided Freshly ground black pepper 1. Toast the bread slices to a light golden color.

Salt-roasted salmon Total time: 20 minutes Servings: 4 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus additional for serving 1 1/2 pounds salmon filet (1¼ to 1½-inch thick) center cut, skin on, cut into 4 equal pieces 8 large eggs, whites only About 4 cups kosher salt 1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a medium ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add the salmon, skin-side down, and cook until the skin begins to crisp, 2 to 3 minutes.

Sockeye salmon with green garlic and favas Total time: 25 minutes Servings: 4 Note: Sockeye salmon is available from fish markets and select well-stocked markets. Green garlic is available seasonally from farmers markets and select well-stocked supermarkets. 2 pounds whole fava beans 4 (5-ounce) skin-on fillets sockeye salmon Salt and pepper 1/2 cup olive oil 2 cups thinly sliced green garlic, from about 4 stalks cleaned and sliced crosswise (both white and green parts)

Smoked salmon onigiri filling Total time: 10 minutes Servings: Makes enough filling for 4 onigiri 3 ounces smoked salmon, thinly sliced 1. Heat the broiler. Place slices of the salmon on a foil-lined baking sheet and broil until the surface of the fish turns opaque, 1 to 1½ minutes on each side depending on the heat of the broiler. Remove and set aside just until the fish is cool enough to be handled. Flake the salmon using your fingers. 2. The salmon can be used as a filling within the onigiri or can be mixed together with the rice before forming onigiri (use half the amount of cooked rice for the basic onigiri recipe)

With a global population pressing against food supplies and vast areas of the ocean swept clean of fish, tiny AquaBounty Technologies Inc. of Waltham, Mass., says it can help feed the world. The firm has developed genetically engineered salmon that reach market weight in half the usual time. What's more, it hopes to avoid the pollution, disease and other problems associated with saltwater fish farms by having its salmon raised in inland facilities. The Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve what would be the nation's first commercial genetically modified food animal.

Hauling truckloads of hitchhiking juvenile salmon around dams is one silly way to save a species. And it doesn't work either. As four dams were built along the lower Snake River in southeastern Washington from the late 1950s to early 1970s, it took only a few years for the river's healthy salmon populations to plummet. By the mid-1990s, the populations of four types of salmon had been declared endangered or threatened. The federal expenditure of $8 billion since then for fish ladders, hatcheries, habitat restoration and, yes, trucks and barges to transport the salmon around the dams has not restored the fish.

[ONCORHYNCHUS TSHAWYTSCHA] After one to five years roaming the ocean and building up powerful muscles, mature chinook salmon return to the streams of their birth each fall. Taking advantage of water levels raised by fall rains, they thread their way upstream against swift currents and surging waterfalls to reach ancestral spawning grounds.

Re "Shred the Roadmap to Salmon Extinction," Commentary, Dec. 30: Thanks to Bruce Babbitt for his lucid explanation of the implications of the Bush administration's so-called plan for the salmon habitat in Washington state. No matter how many times it is pointed out, it seems to be difficult to make the Bush team (and the American public) understand that the loss of a species is another link in the chain of environmental destruction, and that lost species, clean air and clean water can never be replaced.

The catch of small, schooling fish such as sardines and anchovies should be cut in half globally and the amount left in the ocean doubled to protect the ecologically vital species from collapse, scientists say in a new report. The silvery species known as forage fish are harvested in huge numbers worldwide and are easy for fishermen to round up because they form dense schools, or "bait balls. " But wide fluctuations in their numbers make them especially vulnerable to overfishing, according to the report released Sunday by the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force, a 13-member panel of scientists from around the world.

Dear SOS: We were hosted by our good friends for our 50 t h anniversary for dinner at Morton's Steakhouse . We were served smoked salmon pizza as an appetizer. Could you manage to get the recipe? Sylvia Nureddine Ontario Dear Sylvia: Morton's was happy to share its recipe for smoked salmon pizza, which we've adapted below. Morton's smoked salmon pizza Total time: 15 minutes Servings: 6 to 8 Note: Adapted from Morton's Steakhouse 1 (12-inch)

Few players have benefited more from the state basketball playoffs than Marquis Salmon, a 6-foot-7 senior at Sun Valley Village Christian. When the Crusaders' season was extended by an at-large berth to the Division V playoffs, Salmon got a second chance to impress college recruiters. "He's been phenomenal these last four weeks," Coach Jon Shaw said. "He's impacted the team at both ends of the floor. " In a Southern California Regional semifinal upset, the Crusaders knocked off top-seeded Playa del Rey St. Bernard, 75-65, behind Salmon's 29 points.

'Salmon Fishing' catches on "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" reeled in a healthy number of moviegoers at the box office this last weekend. The drama about a scientist and a consultant on a mission to bring fly-fishing to the Middle East opened in 18 theaters and collected $240,000 domestically, according to an estimate from distributor CBS Films. That amounted to a respectable per-theater average of $13,333. The film, starring Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor, attracted an older female audience— 71% of the crowd was over 50 and 61% were women.

A pleasant fantasy with a crackerjack title, "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen"is a charming film whose few attempts at seriousness are best forgotten or ignored. When Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor are your stars, that is easy to do. Blunt and McGregor are two of the most gifted and attractive actors working today, able to play off each other with great style, and when they invest themselves in these amusing characters they bring to life the film's very contrived plot about bringing British angling to the desert of the Middle East.

  The once-legendary salmon streams of the Pacific Northwest have been battling steep declines in the celebrated fish for years, and nowhere has the challenge been tougher than on the Klamath River, with salmon struggling to survive the perils of dams, drought and water wars on the river that flows from southern Oregon into California. But in a stunning reversal that state wildlife officials are at a loss to fully explain, nearly 1.6 million chinook salmon, the big, meaty fish most prized by fishermen, are expected to try to make their way into and up the river to spawn this fall.

Despite a historic shutdown of coastal salmon fishing, the number of salmon returning to the Sacramento River is collapsing, according to preliminary data released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council. Returning fall Chinook salmon numbers have dropped to their lowest level since monitoring began in the 1970s, the report said. The finding means it is unlikely that fishing will resume this year, disappointing fishermen who have eked out the last two years on disaster aid, waiting for salmon fishing bans to be lifted.

A coalition of nearly 30 organizations in the animal agriculture industry sent a letter to the heads of the House and Senate on Tuesday, asking lawmakers not to intervene as the Food and Drug Administration considers whether to approve genetically engineered salmon as food. The letter comes more than a month after the House approved an amendment, by voice acclamation, to an appropriations bill that would strip the FDA of funding to study the salmon. On July 15, members of the House and Senate sent letters to the FDA asking it to abandon its consideration of modified salmon as food, and threatened to propose legislation to bar further study of the fish if the agency does not comply.

Talk to a fisherman on the West Coast and he'll give you a hard-luck story.  The once-glorious salmon runs of the Pacific Northwest are mostly shadows of what they once were, some threatened with outright extinction, and few rivers have had as many troubles as the Klamath, as it runs from southern Oregon into Northern California. Once the third-most productive salmon river system in the U.S., the Klamath last year saw only about 233,000 fall chinook - the big, meaty salmon prized by fishermen - headed back to spawn.  In 2008, the number was only 68,000.