If you still don't think this constitutes an expanded threat to Maine's last wild salmon let me give you some more information. Last fall, our worst fears were realized in the Magaguadavic River. Four of twenty-eight aquaculture escapees tested positive for the ISA virus. In addition, eight of ten wild fish collected for broodstock purposes have died from the disease. There is no known cure for infected fish.
Diseases are a part of the natural world.
What is different about the aquaculture industry is that the network of high density cages in close proximity is very unnatural and provides ideal conditions for rapid transmission of a disease once an epidemic gets started. Given that many of the pathogens are waterborne, they can travel from one aquaculture site to another, and potentially infect wild animals in their path. The 1999 positive test results from both wild and aquaculture fish have major implications. First, they show that there are infected wild and diseased fish at liberty, which could be potentially acting as disease vectors to salmon and other species of fish. There are no contingency plans in place to cope with this threat.