The Chilean Congress is advancing a bill that proposes to redistribute catch quotas between the artisanal and industrial fishing sectors in the country, aiming to correct what the government considers an historical error.
However, the bill has drawn heavy fishing industry backlash and, for many, has only created more questions than answers.
The existing Chilean fishing law, enacted in 2013 and set to last until 2032, handed control of the vast majority of Chile’s marine resources to a handful of large-scale private fishing firms.
The government has since reversed course and said that the standing legislation is “illegitimate and illegal,” as a number of parliamentarians were accused of accepting bribes to influence the writing of the bill to favor larger seafood firms in a scandal referred to as the “Corpesca case,” named after one of the four large companies that benefited from the law.
In response, Chile President Gabriel Boric has sought to introduce legislation to level the playing field.
The new bill aims to reduce quotas allocated to industrial fishing firms and increase artisanal quotas, but both industrial and artisanal stakeholders have expressed disappointment and anger at the recent developments.
Upset with the delay in legislation and for expecting to receive less than what they have asked for, artisanal fishermen have held violent demonstrations in front of the Chilean Congress building in Santiago and in several cities throughout the country. Large-scale fishing firms, meanwhile, assert that the bill would unfairly and unconstitutionally change the quota system, and workers at those companies have also protested as they are fearful of losing their jobs.
Already, Chilean fishing firm PacificBlu has announced it will shutter its operations 1 January 2026 due to the reduced quotas – a move that would affect nearly 3,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The bill – called the “ley de fraccionamiento” locally – specifically proposes to modify the distribution of quotas in 18 Chilean fisheries. Upon approval, the new law would apply until 2040, with annual adjustments made according to the performance of both industrial and artisanal sectors.
Currently, the law grants the industrial sector 60 percent of the total allowable catch for hake, 80 percent for cuttlefish, and 90 percent for horse mackerel. The artisanal sector has aspired to obtain 70 percent of the hake quota, 90 percent of cuttlefish, and 30 percent of horse mackerel.
A draft bill was approved by a large majority in Chile’s lower house in October 2024, mainly favoring the artisanal sector, but discussions in the upper house have been more contentious, with some senators seeking to tone down measures affecting the industrial sector.
While final quotas are still being defined, a congressional joint committee has approved allocating 52 percent of the common hake quota to artisanal fishing and 48 percent to industrial fishing, for example.
Regarding quotas for anchovy and sardines, the committee agreed to establish a dynamic quota-setting methodology whereby a minimum of 55 percent and a maximum of 85 percent would be allocated for artisanal fishing, all while respecting the 5-mile offshore limit designated for artisanal fishing.
Major industrial companies in the sector announced that if the bill is approved, they will initiate legal actions against the state in national and/or international courts.
Chilean fishing company Landes has already filed a legal action against the state for what it claimed is “covert expropriation.” Landes asserts that the technical, financial, and regulatory impact reports – required by current regulations to ensure the legality and constitutionality of any bill – never took place during the preparation of setting the new fishing quotas.
Fellow large-scale fishing firms Blumar, Camanchaca, and Austevoll have also said they would also consider legal recourse if the bill passes.
“The fishing quota bill’s serious impact on private property and legal certainty is like dynamite on the spirit of companies that want to progress in Chile,” Camanchaca CEO Richard García said. “The future of fishing is being defined … and if the bill is approved as is, it will have very serious repercussions on the activity and employment of the sector and will force us to sue the state for expropriation without compensation and without [considering] the public interest.”
Blumar CEO Gerardo Balbontín concurred.
“This is a very bad law that is based on a purely ideological principle. Acquired rights are being violated,” he said.
Felipe Sandoval, the president of Chile’s largest industrial fishing association, the National Fisheries Society (Sonapesca), defended the existing fishing law, explaining that large-scale changes are not necessary.
“The law is not corrupt; there were actions that were condemned by the courts, which is a different issue. Institutions work in Chile. The courts acted, and there were rulings in specific cases. This is a law that is in force, which passed with large majorities when it was discussed and approved in both the chamber of deputies and the senate,” he told local publication El Mercurio.
Retired admiral and former commander-in-chief of the Chilean Navy Edmundo González Robles said that the focus of the new bill is misguided.
“The focus should be on promoting greater development, without stagnating one of the two major sectors [industrial versus artisanal fishers], making both fisheries grow. In recent years, there has been an improvement in the state of all fisheries; the remarkable recovery of the horse mackerel is a good example of this,” he said in an op-ed piece in local paper El Libero. “For the good of the country, we hope that a prompt solution will be reached that benefits not just one sector but provides economic stability for a greater development of fishing in general and, thus, recover our former place among the top 10 fishing countries in the world.”
