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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

WASHINGTON: A company linked to Patagonia’s founder got the edge in Washington’s land-based salmon race. Some wonder why.

February 20, 2024 — An introductory meeting was enough for a little-known Canadian group with links to the founder of outdoor clothing retailer Patagonia to initiate a partnership giving it first crack at revolutionizing the salmon farming industry in the US state of Washington.

Nova Scotia-based Sustainable Blue left that meeting, in January 2023, with agreement to draft a Letter of Intent (LOI) to develop the first land-based salmon farm in the state, according to multiple emails and documents obtained by IntraFish.

Just three months later, Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz – a key decision-maker on aquaculture policy in the state, and a participant in that meeting – announced the partnership to the public.

The unusual speed of the deal between Sustainable Blue and Washington’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has raised questions among established aquaculture companies, several of which say they were excluded from the selection process or consulted only after the LOI was signed.

The agreement has also invited scrutiny of the relationships between Franz, Patagonia and a non-governmental organization by the name of Wild Fish Conservancy, each of which has campaigned on different fronts against farming salmon in netpens.

This month, Franz was a keynote speaker in Reykjavik at the launch of Patagonia’s new film, “Laxaþjóð: A Salmon Nation”, which is part of a campaign to end netpen salmon farming in Iceland.

Read the full article at Intrafish

Businesses call for long-term salmon protections in Bristol Bay, Alaska

June 14, 2021 — A group of more than 200 businesses and industry associations sent an open letter to the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and the U.S. Congress yesterday asking for lasting protections in Bristol Bay, Alaska, home to world’s largest sockeye salmon run.

The letter was signed by large foodservice and retail players like Sysco, Hy-Vee, Wegmans, and Publix, as well as outdoor recreation and commercial fishing companies like Grundéns, Patagonia, Costa del Mar, and Keen.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

‘Salmon’ author pans Patagonia’s anti-fish farm activism

December 1, 2020 — Mark Kurlansky, the New York Times bestselling author of “Salmon”, is urging anti-fish farm activists to work with salmon farmers and boost the production of affordable and sustainable seafood from the oceans.

In an interview with SeaWestNews, Kurlansky said replacing sea farms with land-based operations, as the activists are demanding in British Columbia, is not a good idea because it will exacerbate climate change and substantially increase Greenhouse Gas (GhG) emissions.

“Land based farming greatly increases energy use and the carbon footprint…I do not think that is a good idea,” said Kurlansky, who spent five years researching his book, which was published by Patagonia, the outdoor clothing conglomerate, which ironically supports activism to stop ocean-based fish farming.

“Farming salmon in the oceans has almost no carbon footprint…almost all of the energy used, apart from packaging the food, is provided by the natural force of the ocean…so you will be taking a low energy industry and turning it into a high energy industry,” he said.

“I would certainly not want to see all fish farms move on land, and I also would not want to see all ocean fish farming stopped, because I think it has a good contribution and it is a supply of affordable protein. That is not something to turn your back on.”

Read the full story at SeaWest News

The Complicated Role of Iron in Ocean Health and Climate Change

January 6, 2020 — One brisk day in April 2013, as he drove with colleagues along the southern coast of Patagonia, Mike Kaplan spotted a geologist’s treasure trove—an active gravel pit with freshly exposed walls. He pulled over, grabbed the backpack full of digging tools stowed in the car trunk and walked into the large hole.

To Kaplan’s south lay the Southern Ocean, stretching toward Antarctica. Strewn around him was evidence of Earth’s most recent ice age: heaps of crushed rock and gravel released by one of the many glaciers that had once covered North and South America. Standing in the pit, Kaplan spotted what he was looking for: a layer of fine gray silt deposited by ice sheets roughly 20,000 years ago.

A geologist at Columbia University in New York, Kaplan has spent over a decade collecting the sediments that make dust, and studying how that dust, launched from earth to air to sea, influences Earth’s climate, past and present. Dozens of intriguing samples have made their way home with him, stowed in his suitcase or shipped in a duct-taped cardboard box. As he scraped the dark gray sediment into a plastic bag, he felt a rush of anticipation. Given the sample’s location, he thought that it might be just what he needed to test an aspect of a controversial idea known as the iron hypothesis.

Read the full story at the Smithsonian Magazine

Patagonia’s hatchery movie misguided, inaccurate

July 9, 2019 — Outdoor clothing and gear manufacturer Patagonia recently released “Artifishal,” a misguided documentary full of misinformation about the role hatcheries play in salmon recovery.

The movie claims that salmon hatcheries are the main cause for the decline of salmon and should be eliminated. But it doesn’t present accurate science to back this up.

What we know for certain is that eliminating hatcheries would be the end of salmon fishing for generations. More than half of all the salmon harvested in Western Washington come from hatcheries.

Fisheries management is about balancing the H’s: Harvest, Hatchery and Habitat. We already are using the best available science to manage harvest and hatcheries carefully to protect threatened runs of salmon. Meanwhile, habitat continues to be lost faster than it can be restored. 

Hatcheries are not the cause of declining salmon runs. We wouldn’t need them if habitat could support sustainable salmon populations.

Another false claim made by the film is that hatcheries are the same as open water Atlantic salmon farms. They’re not.

Read the full story at The Reflector

Iceland to vote on changes to aquaculture policy

June 19, 2019 — The Icelandic parliament is set to vote on proposed amendments to the country’s aquaculture act, coinciding with a major public effort to curb the use of open cages in salmon farming nations, reports Visir.

The US outdoor clothing brand Patagonia, in collaboration with the wild salmon stocks fund and the North Atlantic Salmon Fund, has received 140,000 signatures for its challenge to open pen salmon farming in Iceland, Norway, Scotland, and Ireland.

The signatures are set to be handed to parliament ahead of the vote on the bill proposed by the minister of fisheries and aquaculture. A second debate on the bill was postponed on June 13.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ALASKA: Patagonia, Whole Foods, and others speak out against Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay

April 26, 2019 — A coalition of more than 200 businesses that includes Patagonia, Hy-Vee, Whole Foods, and PCC Markets drafted a letter this week to speak out against Pebble Mine, a proposed open-pit copper, gold, and molybdenum mine at the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

The letter from the group, known as Businesses for Bristol Bay, was addressed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Anchorage and requested that the Corps suspend its review of the permit application from the mining group, the Canada-based Pebble Limited Partnership.

Echoing the concerns of many, the Businesses for Bristol Bay said the process is incomplete and that officials are trying to rush the permit through.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Chairman Bishop Invites Patagonia CEO to Testify Before House Natural Resources Committee

December 15, 2017 — The following was released by the House Committee on Natural Resources:

Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) sent a letter to founder and CEO of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, inviting him to testify before the Committee on the Antiquities Act, national monuments and federal land management.

“The committee believes that major public policy decisions involving millions of acres of public land should be discussed, debated, and considered in the light of day,” the letter states. “The committee also believes it is important to understand and allow for all perspectives to be presented fairly and respectfully…

“Over the last several months, the House Committee on Natural Resources has invited stakeholders from across the country to engage in a public conversation on these and related matters…

“As part of this continuing process, I wish to invite you to testify before the Committee about your views on federal land management.”

Click here to read the full letter.

U.S. State Department Seeks Judges for Third Annual Fishackathon

February 12, 2016 —  The United States Department of State has asked Saving Seafood to distribute this information regarding their “Fishackathon 2016” for which they are seeking judges from the fishing industry and related academic disciplines. For more information go to: Fishackathon.co, and if you are interested in being a judge please contact: Erika Crowell at CrowellE@state.gov

Fishackathon 2016

On Earth Day 2016, the U.S. Department of State will hold the third annual Fishackathon. Fishackathon is a public-private partnership that aims to capitalize on the expansion of mobile phone and internet use across the developing world to address sustainable fishery challenges. Volunteer coders, technologists, and designers will spend the weekend of April 22-24 developing usable solutions to problem statements solicited from fisheries experts around the world. At the end of the hackathons, teams will present their work and an expert panel of judges will nominate a winner from each site, eligible for worldwide grand prizes.
Here are the US/Canada Sites:

United States/Canada

1. Atlanta, GA (Georgia Aquarium)
2. Charleston, SC (South Carolina Aquarium)
3. Dallas, TX (Earth Day Dallas)
4. Long Beach, CA (Aquarium of the Pacific)
5. Monterey Bay, CA (Monterey Bay Aquarium)
6. New York City, NY (Patagonia)
7. Portland, OR (Uncorked Studios)
8. San Francisco, CA (Many Labs)
9. Seattle, WA (Impact Hub)
10. Tampa, FL (The Florida Aquarium)
11. Toronto, Canada
12. Vancouver, Canada (Vancouver Aquarium)
13. Washington, DC (Impact Hub)
14. Worcester, MA (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)

Get involved!

Fishackathon host sites are seeking fisheries and technology experts to participate in the hackathon as:

Panel Judge – Panel Judges will serve to judge host site creations and chose one host site winner eligible for world -wide grand prizes on Sunday, April 24. Judges will be provided with a list of criteria to rate the host site presentations and submissions.

On-Site Consultant – Consultants will serve to provide subject matter/technical assistance, answer questions, and provide feedback to coders. We’re also seeking “on call” experts who can answer questions and provide feedback to teams around the world via Skype or E-mail throughout the weekend.

Team Member – Join a Team! Everyone is welcome to participate in a local or virtual team.

For more information go to: Fishackathon.co

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