Sure. I can share the information. Atlantic salmon has been in steep decline, certainly throughout the 1970s, until just a decade ago.... There are many threats. I wouldn't want to point one finger and say that there's one cause for the salmon decline and that one cause is aquaculture. There are many causes: habitat loss, poor forestry practices, poor agricultural practices, commercial fishing for too long, and on and on.
But in areas where there is a high concentration of aquaculture, open net pen operations like we have in the Bay of Fundy and like we have in southern Newfoundland, that's where our wild salmon runs are in the steepest decline. Also, that decline began at the same time that the open net pen industry began to expand. There are many, many peer-reviewed scientific studies--they're too numerous to begin to point to--that point the finger at aquaculture as a cause. I did mention that the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada pointed to aquaculture as a primary cause in both the inner and the outer Bay of Fundy and southern Newfoundland.
Very recently--2001--there were very few wild Atlantic salmon left in the U.S. The only wild salmon left are in the State of Maine. The U.S. government moved to place all those wild Atlantic salmon, the few wild Atlantic salmon left, on the endangered species list. Second to habitat loss because of hydro projects was aquaculture as a primary cause for the decline. So it's an issue that not only the Atlantic Salmon Federation but the scientific community throughout the North Atlantic points to.