The Appeals Court of Punta Arenas in southern Chile has lifted a cautionary suspension issued on 24 April on four salmon farms owned by Nova Austral in the Beagle Channel.
The order is the most recent development in a dispute over salmon production in the southern region of Patagonia. The salmon farm concessions initially belonged to Pesquera Cabo Pilar, a company acquired by Nova Austral in March 2019. These concessions had been granted in 2005, but local groups and Greenpeace filled to halt production in the area in 2008, questioning the presence of the farms in a registered biosphere.
The same appeals court deemed the case admissible in April, but after hearing arguments from the legal team of Nova Austral, it decided to leave the order without effect. According to a report in La Prensa Austral, the company argued that its operations meets high production standards, is sustainable, and does not involve the use of antibiotics.
Detractors of the project, who had previously accused the firm Pesquera Cabo Pilar of not properly maintaining its operation, argued that the salmon farming operation will result in damage to the ecosystem.
In the report, Nova Austral lawyers said that the filing against the farms “looked to confuse or at least cause confusion” over its operations, and pointed out that all the concessions passed an environmental evaluation at the time of their issuance.
Furthermore, despite the protected status of the region, the concessions are in a transition area in the Cape Horn Biosphere that “allows the development of economic activities like aquaculture and fishing, among others.”
Nova Austral’s general manager Nicos Nicolaides told SalmonExpert that when the acquisition of Pesquera Cabo Pilar took place earlier this year, management was aware of the court case, and put their lawyers on the task of resolving it as quickly as possible.
The legal team was able to reach a preliminary agreement, although at least for now, it is not feasible for the company to achieve a full lifting of the restrictions on salmon concessions in the Beagle Channel, Nicolaides added.
The court case will likely advance to Chile’s Supreme Court, though it is currently in the Punta Arenas Appeals Court and could last another six months to a year there, as Greenpeace is expected to present another filing after the most recent decision.
