Charred salmon, or salmonlike char?

Since American home cooks discovered the joys of grilling fish in the 1990s, countless tunas and swordfishes have been sacrificed at the Weber. But true mastery of the tricky art of fish grilling was easily measured by how well a cook could grill salmon, a delicate-fleshed fish that tastes great with a modest touch of char from a very hot grill.

Experts agree that getting the desired whisper of charred taste without overcooking the fish required a well-seasoned grill, patience not to move the fish before it formed a skin and released from the bars, and an experienced eye for doneness.

Since the early 2000s, though, awareness of health threats posed by farm-raised salmon, pollution and ecological damage wrought by the industry, and general distaste for the artificially colored product coming from salmon farms has led many Americans to turn to more expensive wild salmon.

Of course, the salmon farms were created to meet a demand that wild stocks could never meet. At the same time that demand for wild salmon is peaking, the federal government is taking emergency measures to close down salmon fisheries in some of the most important waterways of the Pacific Northwest.

It seems that massive diversions of river water for agriculture have decimated the salmon populations in the Sacramento River and in the Klamath River Basin. So much for barbecuing them!

With wild and farmed salmon now on the do-not-grill registry, what pink-fleshed fish is left? Enter a salmon relative with a juicy, salmonlike character and a great environmental record: arctic char.

It's larger and less bony than other salmonids like trout, and naturally oily enough to cook well on the grill. These fish can be substituted easily into your favorite salmon recipe. Just cut cooking time in half to account for their thinner fillets.

They are available either wild or farm-raised. Their aquaculture doesn't cause as many eco issues as salmon farming, because these fish naturally school very tightly, gain more weight per pound of feed than salmon, and can be raised in closed "raceways," where escapes into the wild are rare and waste can be contained. Wild stocks also rebound rapidly from fishing pressures.

Char is available in more and more fish markets. If your local store isn't carrying it, ask why. Your grill awaits.

LifeWire provides original and syndicated content to web publishers. Jay Weinstein, a chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America, is a New York based food writer, editor, and cookbook author. His food articles and recipes have been featured in The New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Newsday, Time Out New York, National Geographic Traveler, and numerous other publications. His latest book, The Ethical Gourmet, focuses on ecologically sustainable fine foods. He's currently working on a book about sustainable use of water.