Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Salmones Camanchaca's salmon-farming operations in Chiloé were being questioned by the Los Lagos regional council, as a result of a reporting error from the story's source, BioBio Chile. According to the company, the council is actually halting a planned augmentation to Empresas Camanchaca's mussel-farming operations.
Following significant algae blooms and resulting mass mortality of farmed salmon, southern Chile’s Los Lagos regional council has decided to put a stop to Empresas Camanchaca’s plans to increase biomass at its centers mussel-farming operations located on the island of Chiloé.
Santiago, Chile-based salmon farmer Camanchaca faced algae bloom issues throughout April, resulting in the perishing of half of the 3.2 million Atlantic salmon, equivalent to 2,700 metric tons (MT) of biomass, at its Leptepu, Porcelana, Loncochalgua, and Marilmó operations in the Comau fjord. The company has said that it estimates the events will create a direct financial loss of USD 7.5 million (EUR 6.2 million), net of estimated compensation by its insurance policies.
The Los Lagos regional council was reviewing nine environmental impact statements that Camanchaca had submitted, seeking to modify and expand operations at farming centers on the island. However, due to the recent environmental disaster in the Comau fjord and based on the Los Lagos regional development strategy, the councilors unanimously requested that Camanchaca reenter the environmental assessment for the proposed expansions.
“If the company wants to produce, it will have to do that sustainably and under the parameters of the strategic regional development. Projects that increase biomass cannot be approved without environmental responsibility,” the president of the regional environmental commission, Francisco Reyes, told BioBio Chile. “That which happened in the Comau fjord, in the Palena province, provides lessons to be learned, and we hope that the company takes those lessons to make [proposals] adapted to the times we are living and according to community demands and those of artisanal fisheries.”
The environment of the Comau fjord, Augsto Matamala –coordinator of the regional environment department – said, requires careful consideration.
“The Comau fjord, as well as the Reloncaví estuary, are bodies of water that have the highest possibilities of anoxia and the lowest rates of water renewal, and so in terms of the ecosystem, these bodies have a very high risk of algae bloom events,” Matamala said. “With these fjords in particular, we should always take these technical factors into consideration in order to significantly decrease or even eliminate salmon concessions.”
Following the mortality events, Camanchaca reduced harvest estimates for 2021 to 41,000 to 44,000 MT of Atlantic salmon. In its Q4 earnings, in which net losses reached USD 7.5 million (EUR 6.2 million) versus net profits of USD 16.1 million (EUR 13.3 million) in Q4 2019, Camanchaca had provided harvest volume guidance of 56,000 to 57,000 MT whole fish equivalent (WFE) for 2021. At the time, it also provided guidance of 53,000 to 54,000 MT WFE for 2022; 70,000 to 71,000 MT WFE for 2023; 69,000 to 70,000 MT WFE for 2024 and 72,000 to 73,000 MT WFE for 2025; mostly from Atlantic salmon but with an increasing weighting from trout or coho.
Greenpeace has said that it will file a criminal complaint with Chile’s Public Ministry after reviewing what the environmental NGO called “shocking images of dead salmon” in the Comau fjord, calling into question the efforts to withdraw mortality from the pens and the subsequent discharge directly into the sea of untreated, contaminated water. Greenpeace said the situation is “recurrent in the salmon industry, [with] marine ecosystems once again being used as industrial landfills by companies,” and called for a halt to salmon farming in Chile.
Photo courtesy of Camanchaca
