The Upside of Environmental Complexity
Just bought a sockeye salmon off the dock at Granville Island. Hook-and-line caught in the ocean the evening before, gutted when it was brought in to the boat, and because we didn’t mind a little seal bite we got the big one for the regular price.
![photo by Jane Boles receiving the sockeye](http://hughstimson.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/van-summer-2010-1585.jpg)
According to the bathroom scale we paid about the same per pound as we would for factory farm hamburger, which is a somewhat sad economic consequence of the magnitude of this year’s incredible sockeye run. My complex systems teacher once made the point that at a certain scale, complex systems can be effectively equivalent to chaotic systems. Viewed from the commercial dock at Granville Island, the 4 year oceanic salmon cycle sure seems chaotic.
![photo by Jane Boles seal bite](http://hughstimson.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/van-summer-2010-1586.jpg)
seal bite
And tasty. We’ve never cooked salmon before, but we’re figuring on grilling up a chunk of it on bbq tonight with a little lemon.