Those aren’t necessarily opposite things. Wild salmon has a rich, deep flavor to it. The only thing I notice in farm salmon is a fishy taste. Maybe I’m more sensitive to the fishy taste than the other poster, but bland would be a good description for farm salmon that is missing the rich flavors of wild salmon.
In addition there is the identity philosophical issue to worry about: don’t all fish, by definition, taste fishy?
That isn’t just an issue with salmon. Any farmed fish as opposed to it’s wild cousin will tend to lack as strong and rich a flavour.
The particular personal example is Barramundi. The absolute best eating fish IMO. I grew up in North Queensland with an avid fisherman for a father and on the occasions when we caught a Barra. Wonderful.
Now living in Brisbane pretty much all the Barra you get is the farmed variety and it lacks the same oomph on flavour, and in some cases even the texture isn’t quite the same.
Hmm, I see. This looks not to be anything particular to farmed fish, but farmed anything. Deer tastes gamier than beef, wild duck is tastier then domestic chicken, and the list goes on. I think there is even a different in taste between wild vs domestic/farmed fruits and vegetables. The thing is though that one flavour can’t be said to be better than the other - people have different tastes.
Eel has a much richer flavour than tuna, but tuna is sought for of it’s bland, mild taste by most people. “Richer taste” does not necessarily translate to “better product”, especially when one of the biggest variables is cost - which is usually higher for wild-harvested foods.