A Chilean prosecutor is reactivating a case against salmon-farming firm Australis over the death of a humpback whale near one of the company’s grow-out centers.
Newly emerged photos show the whale was entangled in nets, challenging the conclusions of the initial necropsy and “leaving more doubts than certainties,” Prosecutor OIiver Rammsy reportedly said, according to local paper La Prensa Austral.
The incident in question took place on 28 October 2024 at the Muñoz Gamero 1 grow-out center, which is located inside the Kawésqar National Reserve. A necropsy on the whale was performed five days later, and preliminary results pointed to bruises and wounds on the specimen that are consistent with injuries observed in collisions with boats.
However, new records have been filed, to which La Prensa Austral gained access and which do not coincide with the evidence that was initially presented. As such, the prosecutor's office in the area has requested audiovisual records to determine the events that took place over a year ago.
However, according to Rammsy, the office has yet to receive all of the relevant files.
Environmental nonprofit Greenpeace Chile – which filed a lawsuit regarding the whale’s death and has been an outspoken critic of salmon development in Southern Chile’s Patagonia region – also confirmed the records provided are incomplete.
Another apparent irregularity with the way the event was originally addressed has to do with the handling of the whale corpse, which was conducted without the presence of Chile’s National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca).
“That should not have happened unless [Australis] had authorization,” Rammsy said. “It was a corpse that was entangled, and in the photos they sent us in the necropsy, it was not entangled. We later obtained photos through the plaintiffs [Greenpeace] where the same cetacean appears entangled … they should not have moved it.”
Meanwhile, Australis has insisted that it has actively collaborated with relevant authorities, complying with each of the prosecutor's requirements and having activated all corresponding protocols as soon as the dead whale was discovered.
Just one day after the discovery of the dead whale at Australis’ installations, another lifeless humpback whale was found at a salmon farm belonging to Cooke Aquaculture in San Rafael National Park in the Aysén region of Southern Chile. Cooke insisted that the incident took place at a center that was not in operation, claiming that facility was in a sanitary pause.
Chilean law establishes penalties of up to 10 years in prison and steep monetary fines for seriously affecting protected areas or marine ecosystems. Under that law, companies can also be criminally sanctioned.
