Saving Seafood

Salmon Farms in Patagonia Face Growing Opposition

August 14, 2024 — The sea is calm as dusk descends on Tarsicio Antezana’s home island of Quinchao in southern Chile. In the distance, snow-capped volcanoes turn a deep violet with the setting sun.

It’s a serene sight — except for the one thing Mr. Antezana, a retired oceanographer, cannot ignore. Not far out in the water, a strip of small, rectangular objects stretches across the sea, swaying ever so slightly with the tide. These structures might not seem like much, but Mr. Antezana knows what lies beneath the surface: a salmon farm.

Below the water, high-density net cages teem with thousands of salmon. Farms like this one are common in Los Lagos, the primary aquaculture region in Chile. The South American country is the top exporter of farmed salmon to the United States. But the popular fish are not native to this place, and many environmentalists and activists have long complained that the farms are damaging Chilean ecosystems and threatening native wildlife.

Large-scale salmon farming began in Chile in the 1970s. A young scientist at the time, Mr. Antezana was asked to evaluate the viability of farming the fish. He advised the government to establish base-line studies and to be wary of ecological and health risks.

For more than four decades, Mr. Antezana has watched the industry grow into one of the world’s leading producers of farmed salmon. Last year, farmed salmon was Chile’s second-largest export, generating $6.5 billion in revenue.

Read the full article at The New York Times

Cooke begins harvesting Chile’s first organically farmed Atlantic salmon

March 26, 2024 — Cooke Chile, the Chilean aquaculture branch of Canadian seafood firm Cooke, has begun to harvest what it says is the country’s first organically farmed Atlantic salmon.

The organic salmon has been certified under regulations from the European Commission and Great Britain for sale in the European Union. The company said production will initially make up a quarter of Cooke’s total salmon production in Chile.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Chilean President Boric planning reconstruction of country’s fishing laws

June 2, 2022 –Chile will look to replace its existing fishing laws, while also strengthen environmental stewardship in the ocean, President Gabriel Boric, who took office in March, said in his first address to the nation on 1 June 2022.

“In terms of fisheries and aquaculture, we will fulfill our commitment to advance in a new law, which will be free of corruption and the result of an open and transparent debate. One that delivers clear, fair, and sustainable rules, both at an industrial and artisanal level,” Boric said during the televised speech from Chile’s Congress.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Multi X mortality event revised downward by 50,000 fish

June 1, 2022 — Puerto Montt, Chile-based salmon farmer Multi X, which reported the death of 300,000 fish at one of its farms on 22 May, has revised the number downward to 250,000 fish totaling 1,075 metric tons (MT), Chile’s National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service, Sernapesca, reported.

The mortality was associated with a decrease in dissolved oxygen content affecting Atlantic salmon at the farmer’s San Luis center in the concession group ACS 1, located in the Reloncaví Estuary in the Los Lagos region. The extraction of all mortality was completed on 22 May and subsequently sent to the Fiordo Austral Holding’s Salmonoil and Los Glaciares reduction plants in Puerto Montt.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Chile mulling moratorium on salmon-industry expansion, operation in protected areas

May 9, 2022 — Chile President Gabriel Boric is reportedly considering a moratorium on the farmed salmon sector that would halt its expansion in the country.

The 36-year-old Boric, the youngest president in Chile’s history, was elected in December 2021 and took office in March 2022. Previously, as a member of Chile’s congress, he questioned the environmental sustainability of the country’s USD 5.2 billion (EUR 4.6 billion) salmon-farming industry. Boric hails from Chile’s southernmost region of Magallanes, where the salmon-farming  sector has been expanding its reach.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Chilean court rules fines on fish escapes unconstitutional

April 12, 2022 — Chile’s constitutional court (TC) has ruled that the presumption of environmental damage from farmed fish escapes is unconstitutional, setting a precedent for the country’s aquaculture sector.

In August 2020, Chile’s Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) levied a CLP 5.3 billion (USD 6.7 million, EUR 5.7 million) fine against Mowi for an incident involving a large-scale escape of over 690,000 fish from its Punta Redonda faming center on Guar Island in the south of the country in July 2018. In December of the same year, Chile’s Council for the Defense of the State (CDE) followed that up with a lawsuit filed with the third environmental court against Mowi Chile, seeking action by the salmon farmer to rectify the large-scale escape. At the time, CDE said that the event had caused “irreparable environmental damage,” as the farmer had failed to maintain “the appropriate security conditions and cultivation elements of optimal quality and resistance.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

U.S. urged to join South America in fighting China fishing

March 23, 2021 — The U.S. should consider leading a multilateral coalition with South American nations to push back against China’s illegal fishing and trade practices, a U.S. intelligence agency has recommended in a document obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: China’s illegal fishing industry is the largest in the world. Beijing has made distant-water fishing a geopolitical priority, viewing private Chinese fishing fleets as a way to extend state power far beyond its coasts.

  • A senior U.S. administration official confirmed to Axios that several agencies across the government are “taking a look at this in light of the president’s priorities,” which include “deepening cooperation with allies and partners on the challenges we face to our economy and national security.”

What’s happening: Huge fleets of hundreds of Chinese vessels have had boats fish illegally in the territorial waters of South American countries, including off the Galapagos Islands.

  • The activity has depleted stocks and disrupted food chains, in a practice referred to as illegal, unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishing.
  • South American nations say these fleets are a challenge to their economic and environmental security, but their navies often lack the resources to effectively monitor and patrol their own waters.
  • Last year, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru stated they would join forces to defend their territorial waters from incursions by Chinese vessels.

Read the full story at Axios

COVID-19 outbreaks force seafood processing shutdowns in Alaska, Chile

January 28, 2021 — COVID-19 outbreaks in seafood processing plants in Alaska and Chile have highlighted how the virus is still wreaking havoc on the global seafood industry, more than a year after the first cases were reported outside of China.

Despite hopes that the start of vaccination efforts in the U.S. and elsewhere might eventually bring an end to the problems the virus has caused, the seafood industry is still treading carefully, trying to thread the needle between worker safety and maintaining profitability – or at least solvency.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

‘Prevent, discourage, confront’: South American states tackle Chinese fishing boats

November 5, 2020 — Four South American countries have joined forces in a bid to combat illegal fishing by huge Chinese fleets off their coasts.

Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru have threatened measures “to prevent, discourage and jointly confront” illegal fishing near their exclusive economic zones in the Pacific.

The joint statement made no specific mention of China but environmental groups Greenpeace and Oceana have repeatedly warned of the growing presence of Chinese fishing fleets in the area.

The South American quartet said they would boost “cooperation and real-time exchange of information” to highlight the illegal fishing.

Ecuador in July complained to China over a 300-vessel fleet off Galapagos, saying around half of them had turned off their tracking systems so they could not be located.

Read the full story at The Guardian