MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean salmon crisis forces sacking of Fisheries head

Ongoing problems affecting Chile's once booming salmon industry have prompted a shake up in the National Fishing Service (SERNAPESCA), the Chilean government body responsible for overseeing all fishing activity in the country.

Veterinarian Inés Montalva, under intense pressure in recent months for what critics describe as her poor handling of the current salmon industry crisis, is out as the head of SERNAPESCA. The government has opted instead for Felix Inostroza Cortés, an engineer with an MBA who launched his public service career during the early years of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. Since 2003 Cortés has worked as Montalva's sub director. Montalva's failure to extend her term as the SERNAPESCA head is being welcomed by the salmon industry's many critics, among them members of Congress, who say the government has done little to prevent salmon companies from abusing its workers and ruining the environment. "The SERNAPESCA director didn't even come close to showing the kind of impartiality we require of our government authorities," Socialist Party Deputy Fidel Espinoza told the Santiago Times' sister newspaper, the Patagonia Times. "She made decisions that absolutely favored the salmon companies and which were detrimental to local fishermen. As a result, it's ended up being members of Congress who must fight, so that the salmon industry's growth doesn't come at the expense of its workers and the environment. She ceased to represent all of the players and instead became simply a representative of the salmon companies," he said. Deputy Espinoza was one several people to call for Montalva's resignation last November after the then SERNAPESCA head accused environmental activists of "persecuting" the salmon industry. Montalva also described environmental criticisms of the industry as "absurd." Espinoza responded by calling Montalva "an advertising agent for the salmon companies." The change in SERNAPESCA leadership is also being closely observed by the environmental NGO Ecoceanos, which is hoping Felix Inostroza Cortés will be more forthcoming than his predecessor when it comes to sharing information about the salmon industry and other fishing activities. "The question is whether he will be capable of carrying out all the changes that SERNAPESCA needs. If not, it'll be more of the same?We're going to continue pressuring SERNAPESCA to be more transparent in the way it works," said Ecoceanos Director Juan Carlos Cárdenas. Montalva's removal comes at a particularly difficult moment for the farmed salmon industry, the star of Chile's various fishing related activities. Accustomed to rapid expansion (between 2004 and 2006 the industry grew by 25%, 20% and 28% respectively), Chilean salmon exports grew by just 2% in 2007, according to SalmonChile, the industry's private producers association. Chile's Industrial Promotion Society puts the figure even lower – at just 0.7%. Much of the slowdown can be attributed to Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA), a yet-to-be-contained fish virus that was first detected in Chilean waters last July and continues to spread throughout the country's concentrated salmon farming areas, in Region X and more recently in Region XI. A highly contagious illness than can be lethal to fish, ISA does not affect humans. For months, SalmonChile and SERNAPESCA did their best to downplay the ISA threat. Indeed, as far back as last August the government fishing body declared the disease problem to be "under control." Since then, however, SERNAPESCA has gradually expanded its official list of ISA infected salmon farms. The most recent list, updated on Feb. 27, includes 19 salmon farms. The government body lists more than 45 other sites as "suspicious:" Much of the pressure for SERNAPESCA's improved transparency on the issue, interestingly enough, has come from one of the salmon companies themselves: industry leader Marine Harvest, a Norwegian-owned company that has been particularly hard hit by the ISA outbreak. Late last year Marine Harvest was the first company to break the de facto vow of silence on the ISA problem, admitting publicly that the so-called "biological situation" in Chile was cutting into profits. Following a pair of poor quarterly earnings reports, Marine Harvest recently announced it will scale back production in Chile by 40% this year. In doing so the company expects to layoff some 1,200 workers, roughly 25 percent of its workforce in Chile. "The replacement of Dr. Montalva comes amidst a health crisis that is public knowledge, both nationally and internationally," said Cárdenas. "This health and environmental crisis is having both economic repercussions, in terms of the industry, and social repercussions, in terms of workers. This is the clear result of years of poor management of the industry and a lack of willingness by the state to exert proper control." The Santiago Times