MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Tierra del Fuego plans to vote a bill banning salmon farming in the province's waters

“I don't think arriving tourists to enjoy our pristine nature would like to see cages the size of a football pitch, where salmon are bred at industrial scale”.

The Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego will be voting a bill on Wednesday to ban salmon farming in the waters of the extreme south territory, according to reports in the Ushuaia media.

The first initiative banning salmon breeding in provincial waters was presented to the Ushuaia legislative back in 2019 and after two long years of discussions, and consultations with scientists and environmental organizations, the bill will anyhow authorize, under certain circumstances, the development of rainbow trout aquaculture on land.

Apparently, the farming of the rainbow trout in Tierra del Fuego is mostly artisanal and the bill as agreed in a working committee before reaching the council's floor will respect licenses extended and time periods of such a practice in the “physical territory of the province”.

New rainbow trout breeding projects will also be considered but as long as they comply with an accepted strategic and cumulative environment impact study in accordance with the overall preservation, conservation, defence and improvement of the province's environment. The scale of production of these new projects will have a limit of twenty per year.

The sponsor of the bill initiative, Pablo Villegas thanked his colleagues for the support in the committee discussions and underlined that the bill not only is related to the protection of Tierra del Fuego's environment, but it is also intimately linked to the economic activity which is of great significance for the province, the tourism industry.

“I don't think arriving tourists to enjoy our pristine nature would like to see cages the size of a football pitch, where salmon are bred at industrial scale”.

Apparently, the bill includes a resolution in which it strongly rejects the possible setting up of salmon farming in the water of “our Malvinas”.

Lawmaker Federico Greve said the bill to be considered on Wednesday will have an impact not only locally, but also at the national and international level because it will establish “a strong position in the protection of the environment and marine ecosystems in the Beagle channel, by banning an activity that has generated so many environmental disasters in other countries”.