"It's all about the taste," she said picking up a fillet of fresh king salmon from Sitka, Alaska, at Vis Seafoods in Bellingham.

Confused by the nutritional debate over farmed vs. wild salmon? Many people are.

The nutritional value of salmon can vary between farmed and wild salmon, as well as among salmon in each category.

Nutrition researcher Faye Dong says that until more studies are done, the best advice for consumers is to eat what they like best and to look for the freshest fish.

Fish for oil
The biggest concern for some people is salmon's concentration of omega-3s - an oil gaining credit for everything from lubricating arthritic joints to smoothing away wrinkles.

The American Heart Association recommends that people diagnosed with cardiovascular disease eat fish regularly to benefit from omega-3s. Recent studies say heart attack survivors who ingest one gram of omega-3s each day reduced the risk of sudden death by half within four to eight months.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmed Atlantic and wild chinook are nearly identical in the amount of omega-3s in a 3-ounce portion. The chinook serving had slightly more total fat. Chum salmon had the lowest amount of omega-3s and total fat of any of the salmon species.

But that nutritional information tells only part of the story, said Dong, a former professor at the University of Washington who is now head of the food science and human nutrition department at the University of Illinois.

"There are a lot of things that can affect the total fat content of a fish," she said. "It depends on where you catch it, when you catch it and even what portion of the fish you eat."

For example, salmon are typically oilier in the section of the fish closer to the head, she said.

Some of the wild salmon runs known for their high oil content - such as Copper River sockeye and Yukon kings - are likely to have more omega-3s than a typical Atlantic salmon, as well as higher overall fat content, Dong said.

To further complicate matters, the nutritional value of farmed Atlantic salmon can vary based on their feed blend, Dong said.

As the aquaculture industry moves away from using as much fish meal and fish oil in salmon feed, and adds more vegetable products and oils, she said, the amount of omega-3 fatty acids in farmed salmon could drop and the amount of other fatty acids could rise.

Critics of farmed salmon have raised concerns about possible antibiotic residues and colorants in the net pen fish. The public should have more information before choosing to buy farmed salmon, said Melissa Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Farmed and Dangerous campaign in Vancouver, B.C.

"There's a dearth of information out there," she said. "What we're saying is that there needs to be more research done."

Shopper confusion
Despite the well-publicized debate over farmed vs. wild salmon, some shoppers remain in the dark about which is which.

Washington state requires store-bought salmon to be labeled as wild or farmed, but the law isn't heavily enforced. Problems certainly arise in other states, where shoppers may know even less about salmon.

Nelson said one grocery store in California responded to a customer inquiry about whether the Atlantic salmon was farmed by saying that the farmed Atlantics in the store were "wild" from the Pacific Northwest.

The problem's worse farther inland, where salmon aren't part of the culture.