Cecil, if you really wanted the salmon, I bet you could collect your own eggs from the St. Joe River via fishing. You talking Chinook or something else?
No, landlocked salmon. Salmo salar. A big deal in the northeast. I once almost bought some from Purdue University to plant into the trout pond, but the Indiana DNR said no to the sale. They had legitimate concerns about the remote potential that they could have ISA (Infectious Salmon Anemia) and didn't want to risk it's introduction into the watershed that feeds Lake Michigan. (I don't believe ISA has shown up in the Great Lakes yet, or at least at that time.)
Chinooks along with coho are raised for the table in some Canadian partial recirculating systems, but they are so easy for taxidermists in the Great Lakes states to obtain via angling, it's not a species that would be worth the effort. Even with my 4000 gallon cold water tanks it wouldn't be cost effective and the chinooks would have to get up to at least 30 pounds to be of any interest to taxidermists. I'd rather use my resources to produce harder to obtain species that I can get premuim prices for. And the cost to ship 20 pound Plus 35 inch plus frozen fish would severely limit sales.
Additionally It would be a big risk taking eggs from wild fish even if it is legal, especially from The Great Lakes. Salmonids in the Great Lakes have tested positive for VHS and IPN and furunculosis among other things. All the Great Lakes states DNR's have knowingly planted disease positive salmonids, including Indiana's DNR which planted IPN positive steelhead one year because the fish
weren't dying and they didn't want to destroy the fish. A classic example of a conflict of interest when the entity that is in charge of enforcing disease protocols also raises and plants fish. Disease protocol enforcement should be entirely under the the Indiana Board of Amimal Health. This would not have been an option for a private producer.
The eggs I would use would be purchased from a disease free certified commercial source and shipped overnight Fed Ex in insulated iced boxes.
Here are two sources:
http://www.coldspringstroutfarm.com/http://www.troutlodge.com/
