The bottle says wild caught but the oil is very orange. That usually means the fish had been exposed to astaxanthin to pigment it, right? Are the fish farm raised in net pens?

One of the benefits of using Alaskan salmon is that Alaska does not allow fish farming at all. Wild caught Alaskan salmon are naturally very high in astaxanthin due to the fact that their diet is very high in krill. Nothing is added to this oil during processing except mixed tocopherols to act as a natural antioxidant.

“Astaxanthin is a red pigment occurring naturally in a wide variety of living organisms. Most crustaceans, including shrimp, crawfish, crabs and lobster, are tinted red by accumulated astaxanthin. The coloration of fish is often due to astaxanthin; the pink flesh of a healthy wild salmon is a conspicuous example. In commercial fish and crustacean farms, astaxanthin is commonly added to feeds in order to make up for the lack of a natural dietary source of the pigment.” Torrissen, O.J., R.W. Hardy, and K.D. Shearer. (1989) Pigmentation of salmonids–carotenoid deposition and metabolism. CRC Crit. Rev. Aquat. Sci., 1: 209-225.