Chilean salmon farming companies are introducing new measures to better mitigate and deal with potential algae blooms, which have been ocurring with greater frequency and intensity during the summer season, which in the Southern Hemisphere runs from December through February.
Recently, an event in January caused Blumar over USD 3 million (EUR 2.7 million) in losses, and the country as a whole lost 5,200 metric tons of salmon in 2021. Those events pale in comparison to the disastrous 2016 event, when over 24 million fish, weighing in at more than 38,000 metric tons (MT), were killed off, representing more than USD 800 million (EUR 733 million) in economic impact from lost production.
“In recent years, microalgae blooms have become more frequent due to climate change and rising water temperatures. That is why Chilean salmon farming is advancing proactively with the aim of avoiding fish losses due to mass mortalities and unwanted effects on the environment,” Salmon Council Executive Director Joanna Davidovich said.
The measures being implemented by the salmon-farming companies include the formation of work groups focused on environmental surveillance and the installation of on-site monitoring laboratories and centralized information management systems – software and digital platforms – where different companies report information on the microalgae present in order to better deal with blooms by working collaboratively. Other specific technologies include perimeter bubble-curtains – releasing millions of microbubbles around the base of the pens to form a wall that can block or disperse the entry of harmful microalgae or jellyfish into the module.
Some farmers are undertaking the removal of fish from more algae-prone areas and moving them to locations where the water is cooler. Others, including Salmones Camanchaca, are moving away from Atlantic salmon farming to favor more coho salmon farming at its centers in Chile's Los Lagos region, as coho is harvested before Chile's summer, when the risk of algae blooms increases due to higher water temperatures.
Along those lines, the Salmon Council – an organization that represents AquaChile, Australis, Cermaq, Mowi, and Salmones Aysén, which together produce more than half of Chile’s farmed salmon –commissioned a study to identify the critical points and technical, logistical, and regulatory risks during a harmful algae bloom event. The study, performed by risk-control consultancy CERES BCA, evaluated the processes of extraction, transport, and disposal of mortality under different scenarios of varying magnitude and intensity, to then establish a logistics model that simulates the capacities and response times of a typical salmon farming center during such an event.
The Salmon Council has met with the governmental organizations that regulate and supervise salmon farming – Subpesca, Sernapesca, and SMA, as well as with the SalmonChile members and the Association of Salmon Farmers of Magallanes – to present a preview of the study’s results and begin to realize joint public-private partnerships to better face algae bloom events. Participants will look to address four areas: preventive actions, logistical improvements in management, creation of an ad hoc regulatory framework for this type of contingency, and community involvement.
Photo courtesy of the Salmon Council
