Despite assurances from the Cooke and NOAA folks ( both groups committed to the idea that net-pens are a viable way to raise salmon) that "farmed salmon are more likely to be prey than predator," big fish tend to eat little fish. So this years cohort of smolts (little fish) could be in danger from the 10-pound escapees (big fish). The claim that net-pen Atlantic salmon don't carry pathogens, ignores the presence of both fish lice (a major problem for juvenile salmon) and Kudoa thyrsites "soft flesh syndrome"  (reported by aquaculture industry newsletters to be present in over 20+% of BC farmed salmon) in in salmon net-pens fish. Both of these parasites are major problems just across the border in British Columbia fish-farms.

The solution to whether or not to use net-pens to raise salmon is easy. Just don't farm salmon close to where wild runs of salmon exist. It doesn't make sense to spend millions of dollars on wild salmon restoration and then put those same runs in peril.