The Chilean salmon industry is pushing back against an article by U.K. media outlet The Guardian titled “Those who eat Chilean salmon cannot imagine how much human blood it carries with it.”
The article opened with a story about the death of a diver who was struck by a boat’s propeller at one of Chile’s salmon farms in 2019, and uses that incident as a segue into reviewing the Chilean salmon-farming industry’s track record in health and labor safety, and its use of antibiotics, environmental stewardship, and relationships with surrounding communities.
“Indigenous groups and small-scale fishers report polluted waters, vanishing wildlife, and threats to their cultural practices,” The Guardian reported.
The article also quoted Juan Carlos Cardenas, the director of conservation NGO Ecoceanos, who said that Chile’s salmon industry has had 83 workers die in work-related accidents over the last 12 years, compared to just three deaths over the last 34 years in Norway.
“Those who eat Chilean salmon cannot imagine how much human blood it carries with it,” The Guardian quoted an unnamed source working on a farm in the Patagonian region of Chile as saying.
In response, the Chilean Salmon Council, which represents salmon-farming firms responsible for about 60 percent of the nation’s output, has pushed back against the narrative outlined in the article.
“It is necessary to emphasize that the salmon-farming industry in Chile operates under labor conditions recognized for their strength and continuous improvement,” the council told SeafoodSource in a statement.
Chilean Salmon Council President Loreto Seguel said that the article’s headline in particular “does not reflect the reality of the industry that we in Chile have today.”
“I would love to ask the authors and those who participated in that report where they got the data from and what they based that analysis on because the data we have are totally different,” she said in an interview with Radio La Clave, insisting that the Salmon Council was not contacted for The Guardian’s article. “This is not the first time [the Chilean salmon industry has been questioned in the press]. So, the headline is one thing, but when you read the article … it has about five different topics without any backing.”
Specifically regarding the article’s attacks on labor standards, Seguel pointed out that the Salmon Council has worked with Chile’s national system for the certification of labor competencies, ChileValora, to certify the marine diver trade in Chile and with the United Nations’ International Labor Organization (ILO) to host an e-learning session and a workshop with salmon producing companies on human rights and due diligence, among other efforts.
“If that is not concern for the person, for the workers, for the work perspective, what is it then?” she said.
Seguel also said that the industry is evolving to largely automate tasks such as maintaining equipment, therefore lessening the risks to which workers are exposed.
“We are in a globalized world, we have innovation and technology, and robotics has begun to advance. Today, much of the work is done by robots, whereby a couple of years ago, a person did this and had to go down to great depths. Now, it’s done by ROVs and these robots need operators to handle them; undoubtedly, the risk to human beings is being minimized,” she said.
Nevertheless, at the end of July, there were two fatal events involving divers that took place within a week of each other at salmon farms belonging to Australis and Blumar.
As for The Guardian’s assertions that pollution from salmon-farming activities affects the sea and freshwater alike, Seguel said that these were “unfounded” and that they ignore the basic fact that salmon production requires healthy, strictly controlled marine environments.
The Guardian reported that small-scale fishers blame supposed pollution for the current scarcity of species, specifically pointing to the case of the Chesque Alto salmon farm located in the central-southern region of Araucanía, where the Indigenous Mapuche people living along the river say effluents from the farm have contaminated the waterway, affecting local flora and fauna.
“If the pollution indicated existed, it would simply not be possible to raise any fish. It is essential to demonstrate the sector's genuine commitment to good labor practices, continuous improvement, and strict compliance with current regulations – principles that guide our work and underpin a responsible, transparent industry,” she said. “This is an industry that today reaches 100 markets, and that is no coincidence.”
This was a stance also underlined by the Salmon Council as a whole.
“The Chilean salmon-farming industry operates under strict national and international regulations, with robust environmental, sanitary, and labor standards,” it said. “The sector has invested steadily in innovation, good practices, and management systems that seek not only to comply with regulation, but also to continuously improve transparency and sustainability. We believe that the best response to misinformation is a solid, rigorous industry aligned with national and international best practices.”
Another representative group of Chile’s salmon-farming industry, SalmonChile, declined to comment on The Guardian’s reporting, saying it preferred to not bring further attention toward the article.
