Chile’s Supreme Court has ordered salmon-farming firm Blumar to pay a fine and suspend operations for one production cycle at its Concheo 2 farming center located in the southern Aysén region.
The sanction relates to Blumar delivering false information to the Chilean National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) about antiparasitic treatment carried out at Concheo 2. Besides the suspension of operations at the center, Blumar must now pay a fine equivalent to around CLP 35 million (USD 37,500, EUR 32,600).
The events in question date back to November 2019, when the company’s operators at Concheo 2 started antiparasitic treatments later than they reported to Sernapesca. The treatments actually started once the official bathing window previously established by Sernapesca had ended. This constituted a breach of the provisions of the Sernapesca-authorized Specific Health Program for the Surveillance and Control of Caligidosis, according to the supervisory body.
“The delivery of false information is a serious offense that we cannot allow, and in this sense, we value the decision of the Supreme Court, which supports and validates our oversight role to ensure compliance with the law in both the aquaculture and fisheries sectors,” Sernapesca Aysén Regional Director Daniela Leiva said in a statement.
The highest court’s ruling overturned a previous decision from the Court of Appeals of Coyhaique, which had acquitted the salmon company as it found there was insufficient evidence to prove that Blumar had deliberately deceived Sernapesca.
During the same year the antiparasitic treatment occurred, Blumar was also found to have overproduced salmon at its Córdova 1 grow-out center.
Through complaints filed by Sernapesca against Blumar in 2023 and by the environmental NGO Fundación Terram in 2024, the nation’s Superintendence of the Environment (SMA) verified that during the 2019 to 2021 production cycle, harvested biomass at Córdova 1 reached 6,337 metric tons (MT), with mortality amounting to 203 MT, comprising total production of 6,540 MT, which resulted in overproduction of 665 MT, or 11 percent beyond permitted limits.
Blumar was one of nine salmon-farming companies that Fundación Terram accused of overproduction in Chilean national reserves from 2012 to 2023, resulting in the harvest of more than 67,000 MT of salmon above authorized limits.
