Steven Adolf is a consultant on sustainable fisheries and ocean policy, a researcher, and a writer.
He was trained as an economist and specialized as a researcher on governance and management policies of sustainable fisheries and oceans. Currently, he works as a senior policy advisor for the NGO Accountability.Fish, an initiative to reform regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs).
His latest book, “Tuna Wars. Powers around the fish we love to conserve’,’ describes the world history of industrial tuna fisheries from antiquity to the modern economic battles around sustainability in the value chain. He is a consultant on sustainable fishery management, governance in RFMOs, on matters of eco-labeling, on international fishery and environmental ocean policies of the High Seas Treaty (BBNJ), and on global value chains.
The Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has met over the past two weeks in Cali, Colombia, with new impetus to protect global biodiversity in ocean management. There are serious and growing concerns about industrial activities in marine protected areas (MPAs) around the world, most specifically with regard to the industrial salmon farming currently taking place in Chilean coastal waters.
More than 70 scientists and conservationists from Chile, Argentina, Norway, the U.S., the U.K., the E.U., and other countries sent an open letter to world leaders expressing their deep concerns. The letter points to Chile’s Patagonia region – one of the most pristine ecosystems in the world – and the growing threat posed by industrial salmon aquaculture in open-net pens, with hundreds of companies granted concessions to operate within protected Chilean waters, including many reserves and national parks. There are more than 100 additional applications seeking to operate industrial salmon farms in Chile’s protected areas.
Industrial salmon farms can have a huge and devastating impact on the marine environment. Escaped farmed salmon compete with native fish for food. Pesticides and antibiotics leak out and severely pollute the ecosystem. Sea lice infestations thrive in densely packed cages and can spread to other fish. Fish feces, uneaten food, and other biological waste accumulate on the ocean floor.
Norway and Chile, which together account for 75 percent of the world’s salmon farming production, are in the international spotlight. Earlier this year, seven Norwegian environmental NGOs representing hundreds of local groups expressed growing concern for communities along the country’s coast and called for a reduction in the total number of farmed fish at sea, including the creation of more MPAs.
With more than 42 percent of its national marine zones under some form of protection regime, Chile has a strong track record of implementing large-scale marine protected areas in its national waters. Chile was also one of the first countries to ratify the High Seas Treaty, a key United Nations agreement that will facilitate the creation of protected areas outside of national jurisdiction. The result is a striking contrast: In the waters off the Patagonian coast itself, 416 of the 1,407 salmon farms are allowed to operate in areas that officially have some form of protection for their unique and rich biodiversity.
To name just a few of the damages, Chilean salmon farmers used 5,500 metric tons (MT) of harmful antibiotics between 2008 and 2018. In 2021 alone, industrial agriculture used 510 MT of antibiotics to produce 1 million MT of salmon. Researchers estimate that the amount of nitrogen emitted daily by Chilean salmon farms is equivalent to the waste of 9 million people, almost half of the Chilean population.
These numbers make it difficult to imagine that current salmon farming activity is compatible with modern ecosystem approaches to aquaculture, such as those developed by a world authority on environmental protection like IUCN. Moreover, this summer, at the meeting of the Committee on Fisheries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (COFI) in Rome, Chile was one of many countries that formed a broad consensus on approving guidelines for sustainable aquaculture and advancing the implementation of the code of conduct for responsible fisheries.
Chile President Gabriel Boric has a public commitment to remove industrial salmon farming from protected areas with long-prepared legislation. Because of the new law, 71 salmon-farming projects in protected areas, most in the Las Guaitecas National Reserve and the Kawésqar National Park Reserve, were put on hold.
But, intense lobbying by the salmon industry introduced language that would make it easier for industrial activities to be allowed in national reserves if they were compatible with management plans. Needless to say, this is not in line with Chile's international or national commitments. This industry interference puts new interests, spotlights and pressures on management plans. “Chile needs investment and economic growth,” explained SalmonChile, a leading industry association.
This kind of short-term thinking could cost industrial aquaculture dearly. In the case of salmon, the international business, trade, and consumption chain plays a key role in driving the sustainable level of fishery management. Large international companies own salmon farms. And these companies have learned to care about a good reputation for sustainability. This is also the case for large salmon traders in the Netherlands, Canada, the United States, Germany, Norway, and Japan, where certification to sustainability standards is becoming increasingly important.
More than half of the salmon imported into the United States, with a market value of USD 3 billion (EUR 2.8 billion) according to estimates, comes from Chile. Large retail chains such as Walmart, Costco, and Kroger want to assure their customers that the salmon they sell is produced and sourced sustainably and ethically.
The certification standards of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) and Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) are currently under review on this issue. These certification organizations should seriously consider scientific comments on their reviews and the credibility of certified salmon products sourced from MPAs.
Consumers must be able to trust that the salmon they buy meets national and international commitments on biodiversity and climate change. This is primarily the responsibility of the countries where production takes place, and which have committed to protecting biodiversity. But it also creates an opportunity for production, trade, and distribution companies to show their support for international work on the health of our oceans and to turn the poor reputation of farmed salmon, currently one of the most consumed fish globally, into a champion of sustainability. If they want to guarantee their own stable commercial and economic future, they will have to take this challenge more than seriously.
