TU Expresses Concern Over ISA

TU Expresses Concern Over ISA

Infectious Salmon Anemia Detected at Cobscook Bay

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3/16/2001 --  --  PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release March 16, 2001

Leon Szeptycki, TU Eastern Conservation Director, (703) 284-9411 Jeff Reardon, TU New England Conservation Director, (Brunswick, ME) (207) 373-0700, jreardon@tu.org

Brunswick, Maine . . . Trout Unlimited (TU) expressed concern today over a new threat to Maine’s endangered Atlantic salmon. George Lapointe, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, announced that Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA), a virus that causes disease in Atlantic salmon, was detected at a site in Cobscook Bay on February 15.

“This is very bad news for the aquaculture industry and very bad news for wild salmon,” said Jeff Reardon, New England Conservation Director for TU. “Our concern now is to ensure a timely and appropriate response to confine the outbreak to the site where it has been detected and prevent its spread to wild fish, other farm sites, and the rest of the state.”

The outbreak is not necessarily a surprise, said TU sources. “ISA disease has been detected in aquaculture salmon Europe and Canada,” said Leon Szeptycki, TU’s Eastern Conservation Director. “Once the disease broke out in New Brunswick it was just a matter of time before it crossed the border to the US. Our hope is that the state and the industry have a predetermined response plan to isolate the disease and prevent its spread.”

The risk of disease, including ISA, was one of the threats cited by the federal government in its decision to list Maine’s Atlantic salmon as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Founded in 1959 in Grayling, Michigan, Trout Unlimited is the nation’s leading coldwater fisheries conservation organization. TU’s 125,000 members in 500 chapters nationwide are dedicated to the conservation, protection, and restoration of North America’s trout and salmon and their watersheds.

Date: 3/16/2001