I don't believe that aquaculture is having a demonstrable impact on salmon stocks. The reason I say that is because when you look at salmon stock numbers they seem to fluctuate up and down as a coast-wide phenomenon. They're not directly linked to salmon farms being present or not being present.
The system is so complicated to understand in terms of what we're doing from fishing, from inputs to the environment from a lot of other industrial sources, from global warming and what we understand about the natural rhythms of salmon. To turn around and ascribe salmon aquaculture as being the driving cause for declines in salmon stocks I think is being way too simplistic.
I do think we need to be vigilant. I do think we need to study it. But I also think that salmon aquaculture and wild fish populations can coexist here on the west coast.