Government Fishing for Volunteers Willing to Stick to King Salmon Diet

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is searching for 12 men who wouldn’t mind feasting on a diet of king salmon for 100 days for a salary of $2,300.

“We’re talking about salmon with dill weed, broiled salmon, baked salmon--just like the fine restaurant food,” said Gary Nelson, project coordinator for the department’s Western Human Nutrition Research Center at the Presidio.

He said the study should begin in January, and cautioned that it might not be quite as tantalizing as it sounds. It will be a controlled study that features confinement, lots of physical tests and no conjugal visits.

Participants will sleep, eat and drink at the center’s hotel-like facility that has a pool table, compact disc player and television. There will be daily walks and some organized activities, but no monkey business allowed.

“We don’t want anyone to sneak a candy bar or a beer,” said Nelson.

The Agriculture Department originally wanted women for its study, but said it could not find any takers.

The study is intended to measure the effect that a steady diet of fish would have on keeping arteries free of blood clots.