MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Salmon disease outbreak reappears in Magallanes region

Six months after authorities confirmed an initial, presumably isolated case of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) in Magallanes (Region XII) the deadly fish disease is back: appearing recently on two farms in Chile's southernmost zone.

Earlier this month the National Fishing Service (SERNAPESCA) positively tested fish on a farm located in an area known as Capitan Aracena. The farm, called Aracena 14, is owned by Pesca Chile, a subsidiary of the Spanish company Pesca Nova. As the sample showed no "clinical signs" of the disease, SERNAPESCA classified the site on its latest bi-monthly ISA status report as "suspicious" rather than as an "outbreak" site. The confirmation comes just weeks after ISA, a highly contagious virus that can be lethal to fish but does not affect humans, was detected on another Region XII Pesca Chile farm, this one in Puerto Riquelme. As a precautionary measure the company agreed to eliminate some 300,000 pre-smolts. SERNAPESCA currently lists the site as "temporarily decommissioned," a category used to describe farms that – after initially being listed as "in outbreak" or "suspicious" – went on to eliminate their stock. This past June, SERNAPESCA – under pressure from citizens' groups and the press –confirmed Region XII's first ISA case in Última Esperanza Sound, near the town of Puerto Natales. The government fisheries body, however, never included the site on any of its status reports, a move sharply criticized by local activists. The latest findings add fuel to the fire of an ongoing debate over the future of Magallanes, which currently houses just 1 percent of Chile's US$2.2 billion-per-year farmed salmon and trout industry but could, if producers have their way, play a much more important role in the future. The bulk of salmon production (roughly 70 percent) continues to take place in Region X. Overcrowding combined with widespread ISA infection, however, have salmon farmers there increasing looking south – towards Regions XI and XII. According to the Ministry of the Economy, there are right now more than 1,000 salmon farm concession requests pending in each of the far southern regions. In the case of Magallanes, more than 900 of those requests were filed just last year, a staggering number considering that during the previous 20 years the region's SERNAPESCA office processed only about 500 such requests. "It's super important that the industry expand," said Carlos Odebret of SalmonChile, the industry's private producers association. "Of course we don't know what's going to happen with the current international economic crisis. Not even the Americans know that. Still, world demand for seafood is likely to grow. And in order to satisfy that demand, it's very important that we expand into another area." Those expansion plans are being opposed by small-scale fishers, environmental groups and other citizen organizations, which warn that a sharp increase in salmon farms will spell trouble for the environment, compromise local fishers and hurt far southern Chile's growing tourism industry. Organizations like the Patagonia without Salmon Farms Social Coordinating Committee (CSPSS) – formed earlier this year in Puerto Natales – are calling for a "moratorium" on southward expansion. In nearby Punta Arenas a ship captain's union is doing the same. The moratorium mantle is also being taken up by CONAPACH, Chile's largest artisan fishers association, as well as by many of the country's leading environmental organizations, which have long accused the salmon industry of causing serious environmental degradation. "We want to know what happened to the sanitary barrier that was established at the beginning of the year but which hasn't apparently been effective," CSPSS representative Romano Tótoro told the Patagonia Times. "This (new ISA finding) just shows that the system in place isn't working." ISA was first discovered in Chilean waters – off the coast of Chiloé (Region X) – in mid 2007. It quickly spread throughout Region X and, by the end of the year, had made it into Region XI as well. SERNAPESCA currently lists 20 outbreak sites: six in Region XI and the rest in Region X. The fisheries body lists an additional 44 sites as suspicious. SERNAPESCA's temporarily decommissioned list, finally, contains 63 fish farms. The disease has prompted a veritable crisis in the once-booming industry, which after enjoying several years of 20 percent average growth has suddenly come to a standstill. Problems with the ISA virus have prompted numerous farm and processing plant closures. As a result, according to Region X labor groups, as many as 4,500 workers have been laid off. By Benjamin Witte (patagoniatimes@gmail.com)