Controversy over salmon: Chile authorizes the installation of 4 new salmon farms and the alarm goes off in Tierra del Fuego – 07/05/2019



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The judicial drag lasted a few months and calmed the waters on one side and the other of the Beagle Channel. But this brake has fallen and the expansion of salmon farms in Chile is about to become a fact. The controversy over the salmon industry – between its economic benefits and its ecological damage – is agitated on this side of the Cordillera.

The resolution of the Court of Appeal of the city of Punta Arenas, Chile, on Tuesday canceled a protection resource for the "non-innovative" production presented by Greenpeace South Pacific. The decision of the Chilean justice has aroused the concern of environmentalists and scientists from Tierra del Fuego.

These are oceanographers and members of NGOs who consider the activity as "dangerous" for the entire region's ecosystem. The decision, if final, will allow Nova Austral S.A to move forward with the project of growing 2 million salmon in four cages to be set up in the Beagle.

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The key is that they fear that the trans-Andean advance of these Norwegian capitals restart the project for the establishment of salmon farms on the Argentine side.

This is a cooperation agreement between the national government and Innovation Norway, the Norwegian government's trade agency, which pledged $ 95,000, mobility resources and staff to study the feasibility of salmon farms in seven or eight points on the Fuegian coast.

This study should be completed in March. In the absence of official information, the NGOs of Tierra del Fuego have requested information and have not obtained any answers. Meanwhile, the deliberative council of this province has approved the ban on infrastructure – as fattening centers – conducive to salmon farming in the urban ejido. This does not imply the prohibition of cages in the water, from which the salmon could be processed for processing in Chile.

That's why they're asking the Tierra del Fuego government a law to protect the channel of this industry.

The argument against Argentine and Chilean biologists is flawless: "Salmon is an exotic species which deprives indigenous biodiversity of fish ".

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The escape of fish from cages, as on the Chilean island of Huar, where 900,000 salmon escaped from a hatchery of the Norwegian company Marine Harvest, is one of the main problems because they compete with and feed on native species. But it's not the only one.

"If we take the example of Chile, the salmon leaks, the antibiotic abuseToxic algae and industrial wastes on the sea floor are commonplace and will be some of the consequences of this activity on Tierra del Fuego. For example, the Chilean industry uses 500 times more antibiotics than in Norway, the world's largest salmon producer, "said Adrián Schiavini, biologist and principal investigator of the Australian Center for Scientific Research (CADIC) based in Ushuaia, which is part of Conicet.

"The impact of this industry on the cbad and the species that inhabit it will be devastating." As in Chile, in Ushuaia, there are huge intentions to reproduce the same model: polluting cages in the middle of the cbad, which will affect their beauty and their richness. "he explained to Clarin Mauricio Ceballos, Greenpeace campaign coordinator.

This results in the continuous production of organic matter and nitrogenous and phosphorous waste that serves as fertilizer. This material falls to the bottom of the Beagle Channel, which begins to lose oxygen when the sediments are treated with bacteria.

"The installation of the first salmon cages in Puerto Williams, on the Chilean side of the Beagle Channel, is already under way." The company Nova Austral has concessions granted irregularly by the Undersecretariat for Fisheries and Aquaculture of this country with four projects and 138 cages in the channel, "added Ceballos.

This is not futurology, they claim CADIC. "They will use the same technology used historically throughout Chilean Patagonia, so the effects on the environment will be the same as those that occurred there."

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Fertilizers can promote the growth of algae, which, attached to molluscs, generate the "red tide" which, they say, make them dangerous for human food.

On Tuesday's decision, Alex Muñoz Wilson, director of the National Geographic Pristine Seas Program for Latin America, says Clarin nothing is said. "We are not talking about the fundamental question: when there will be a final judgment, we hope that it is clear that these salmon farms have illegal permits in Chile. It is up to the Chilean government to expire these permits. And it is worrying to ignore the proximity of these salmon farms in Argentina, which will affect their waters. "Wilson has been keeping up with this newspaper just before embarking for Ushuaia, where he will present on Thursday the documentary" Yaganes: a Defender Beagle Channel of Salmon Farms ".

In the poster of this documentation, there is a sea lion. This is not casual, it is the third problem of this industry. "A net cage, suspended in the sea, full of salmon, is like putting a jar full of candy in the door of a school, so the kids can serve themselves." For wolves, free salmon is obtained by pushing and breaking the network, "indicated by CADIC.

Gustavo Lovrich, Ph.D. in biology and principal investigator of this plant, badured that "the main problem of the installation of salmon farms is the continuous production of organic matter and nitrogenous and phosphorous waste as fertilizer. This material falls to the bottom and begins to lose oxygen when sediments are treated by bacteria. "

As part of the breeding of salmon in captivity, antibiotics are used to cure diseases that prevent the growth of fish. This also has consequences. "This substance stays in the environment or in salmon, posing problems when exporting animals to demanding markets," he said.

According to biologists and oceanographers consulted by ClarinAlthough the cages were installed in the Beagle Channel several kilometers from the maritime border between Argentina and Chile, "the consequences of the environmental problem will reach our country in a short time because there is no natural barrier to stop it ".

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