Environmental nonprofit Greenpeace Chile has filed a lawsuit regarding the deaths of two humpback whales found at the end of October in salmon grow-out centers belonging to Australis Mar and Cooke Aquaculture.
The incidents took place on 29 and 30 October inside Kawésqar National Reserve in the Magallanes region and San Rafael National Park in the Aysén region, both of which are in the south of Chile.
In the first case, a dead whale was found in Australis’s Muñoz Gamero 1 salmon grow-out center. Chile’s Superintendence of the Environment (SMA) said it had requested Australis to report the details of the specimen’s conditions at the time it was detected and, in particular, whether it was found entangled in the salmon farm’s nets.
SMA also requested the results of underwater inspections carried out at the center to verify the state of the farm’s nets and pen structure, as well as the result of the necropsy performed on the whale.
In Aysén, SMA similarly asked Cooke Aquaculture to report the conditions in which the dead cetacean was found, particularly whether the death showed evidence of gillnets or entanglement with ropes or moorings.
SMA said it was investigating both incidents in conjunction with Chile’s National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca).
Sernapesca said it received information from Australis that the humpback whale was already dead …
