Chile’s government has enacted a law that requires the holders of aquaculture concessions to take measures to avoid or reduce the deposit of inorganic and organic waste on the sea floor where their concessions are located.
Law 21,410 was published in Chile’s Official Gazette on Thursday, 27 January, modifying the country’s General Law on Fisheries and Aquaculture. It indicates that if the existence of inorganic waste in the concession is registered, “the clean-up work must be carried out within six months, without prejudice to the sanctions that may be appropriate.”
The law will enter into force within two years. All aquaculture concession holders must submit their recovery and research plans to the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) within six months prior to the entry into force of the law. Those plans must outline the physical, chemical, or biological mechanisms to be employed to improve the conditions of the sedimentation area, accelerating the incorporation of organic matter to the environment. The law also calls for salmon-farming firms granted concessions in Chile to further study and develop methods and technologies for the recovery of the seabed.
The law specifies that, if an infraction is committed, the owner “will be sanctioned with the suspension of operations for a period of two years from the date of the resolution. In the event that the offender has not removed the inorganic waste within six months as stated … the sanction will be doubled.”
Several Chilean aquaculture technology firms stand to benefit from the law. One such firm is Aquarov, which looks to use submersible remotely operated vehicles to reoxgynate environmentally affected seabeds underneath fish-farming centers. The innovative system pumps seawater through a generator, where it is injected with oxygen and pumped through a hose that is transported by the ROV to the farming center’s seabed. Nanobubbles generated by the process help to recover the seabed and can be useful to oxygenate the water column, according to the company.
Similarly, the robotics firm Winrob recently signed a partnership with ITG Chile to oxygenate the seabeds at salmon farms using oxygen nanobubbles.
Photo courtesy of Adwo/Shutterstock
