MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Battered Chilean salmon industry targets Magallanes

Chile's Magallanes XII Region in the extreme south of the country looks to play an increasingly active role in Chile's 2.2 billion US dollars salmon industry as overcrowding and disease problems in Region X have producers looking south for greener pastures.

Magallanes currently accounts for just 1% of Chile's total farmed salmon and trout production. Right now, in fact, there are only 15 salmon farms and four hatcheries operating in the region. All of that, however, is likely to change – and quickly. Last year the Region XII branch of Chile's National Fishing Service (SERNAPESCA) received 972 aquaculture concession applications, a staggering number considering that during the previous 20 years the government office processed only about 500 such requests. SERNAPESCA, furthermore, has already issued an additional 80 concessions (i.e. operating licenses) to companies expected to launch operations by the end of this year. "Effectively there's been a major spike, a strong increase in the number of aquaculture applications, roughly 95% of which are for salmon and trout farming. The other 5% is for production of shellfish, mostly mussels," Jorge Sierpe, SERNAPESCA's top Region XII aquaculture official, told the Patagonia Times. The reasons behind the sudden surge in concession requests are multi-fold according to Sierpe. For starters, Region X – which accounts for roughly 70% of the country's overall farmed salmon and trout production – is by all accounts saturated. Complicating matters even more are ongoing problems with Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA), a highly contagious virus that can be lethal to fish but does not affect humans. The disease was first detected last July on a salmon farm near Chiloé, in Region X. Since then it has gradually spread throughout Region X. More recently SERNAPESCA confirmed ISA outbreaks in Region XI as well. "The principal reasons as we see them are the availability of space, the absence of illnesses and pollution, and advances in technology," said Sierpe. "In both Regions X and XI, the coastline used for salmon fishing is in many ways saturated. There's also everything that happened in 2007 in Region XI with the underwater volcano – geological problems." In April of last year an earthquake near Region XI's Puerto Aysén caused landslides that then triggered a localized "mini tsunami" in the Aysén Fjord. Huge waves swept several people, including four salmon industry workers, to their deaths. Geologists believe the quake, one of many to affect the region during 2007, was caused by an underwater volcano forming below the Aysén Fjord. "The waters (in Region XII) are practically unoccupied. We've got a lot of space available. And the quality of the water is excellent. So far the area is practically disease free," said Sierpe. Until a few months ago, the same thing could have been said about Region XI – long considered the promised land for Chile's once booming farmed salmon industry. However, the confirmation late last year of ISA outbreaks on two Aysén fish farms came as a sobering reality check for companies looking to expand into the region. It also exposed cracks in the so-called "sanitary barrier" SERNAPESCA put in place to stop ISA from spreading. The question on many people's minds, then, is whether Magallanes will be able to avoid the kinds of problems that have already hampered the industry in Regions X and XI, or whether salmon companies expanding into the region will simply transfer their troubles further south. Jorge Sierpe is confident that SERNAPESCA, given the experience it has gained in other parts of the country, will be able to successfully manage the coming influx. "They are coming into the region at a time when national environmental and industry laws are already in place. That was not the situation 20 or 30 years ago when the industry first got started in Regions X and XI," he said. "From a sanitary point of view, SERNAPESCA is conducting constant inspections, taking constant samples from the few farms currently operating?As a region we are applying a very strong sanitary barrier in order to avoid the possibility of these (diseases) coming in," Sierpe added. SERNAPESCA's assurances aside, news of the pending expansion has raised alarm bells not only among environmentalist critics of the industry, but also among small-scale fishermen and other Region XII locals. Late last week, members of a Punta Arenas-based ship operators union called SITONERS raised their objections in a letter sent to Magallanes Regional Governor Eugenia Mancilla Macias. Citing concerns about the industry's questionable environmental record, SITONERS demanded that SERNAPESCA cease issuing aquaculture concessions until it can begin properly regulating antibiotic use, environmental degradation and other problems attributed to the industry. "We're also asking that (SERNAPESCA) begin requiring an environmental impact study, and not an environmental impact declaration, which is nothing more than a company's declaration of good intentions. When companies apply for concessions, they say, 'there are no problems here.' And the authorities believe them and don't conduct the necessary studies. They just approve the concessions," said SITONERS President Jorge Cofre. "We're concerned about how weak environmental regulations are in this country. (Magallanes) is a virgin area that so far doesn't have many salmon farms. They haven't yet ruined the area environmentally. That will change if all these salmon companies that are applying for concessions end up operating here," he added. The so-called "moratorium" request echoes demands made in past weeks by both the National Confederation of Chilean Artisan Fishermen and Aysén's Association of Artisan Fishing Organizations. Both groups insist President Michelle Bachelet should make good on a January 2006 campaign promise to "cease handing out aquaculture concessions for large-scale farming until studies are conducted to determine exactly how much (fish farming) the waters and ecosystems can handle". Also joining the moratorium chorus are Santiago-based NGOs Terram and Oxfam Chile, which have collaborated over the past several months on an information campaign called "Not Afraid to Go against the Current." The goal of the campaign is to draw public attention to problems such as low wages and relatively high safe and health risks that affect the industry's estimated 55,000 direct and indirect workers. Terram and Oxfam Chile are particularly concerned about a recent wave of industry layoffs. Last week Norwegian-owned Mainstream fired approximately 260 workers in Quemchi, Chiloé (Region X). The job cuts came just days after Marine Harvest, also a Norwegian company, shut its Puerto Montt-based Chinquihue processing plant. That closure, originally scheduled for late June, resulted in roughly 600 layoffs. Japanese-owned Salmones Antártica has also cut jobs of late. "What we're asking is that they don't hand out any more concessions or approve anymore environmental impact declarations until environmental regulations are put in place that are capable of truly controlling these disease outbreaks," said Terram's executive director, Flavia Liberona. "Right now it's the ISA virus. But probably in the future there'll be other diseases," she added. "We urgently need a change in the regulations. Otherwise we're going to have growing social problems across the country because an industry collapse generates social problems." The Santiago Times