Big Fish Sell--Too Bad There Aren't More of Them

The Domesday Book of Giant Salmon (~$75), a story book of the biggest Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) caught since the 18th century, is an unexpected best-seller this year. A special edition of the book priced at $1311 sold out before it was even ready to be shipped. Good thing the Atlantic salmon has been immortalized. A WWF study a few years ago found that:

Atlantic salmon have been completely eliminated from no fewer than 300 out of over 2,000 river systems in their original range, and stocks hang by a thread in many others. In Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the species has all but disappeared, and it is on the brink of extinction in Estonia, Portugal, Poland, the United States and parts of Canada. Nearly 90 per cent of the known healthy populations exist in just four countries: Norway, Republic of Ireland, Iceland and Scotland. In the last 30 years, catches of wild salmon have fallen by 80 per cent.