Authorities with Chile’s Environmental Superintendent (SMA) have charged that the local division of Marine Harvest lacked proper security measures, a deficiency that they said contributed to a large-scale escape of 690,000 salmon from one of its faming centers in the south of the country in July.
According to a statement from the SMA, the authority will file charges against the company due to the escape which occurred at its Punta Redonda center on Guar Island in southern Chile. The entity also said that the recapture rate was only 5.54 percent of the total escape, much less than the total the salmon farmer had reported in its legally-mandated efforts.
In its report, the SMA charged that despite the foul-weather conditions that contributed to the escape, high winds alone were not enough to cause the incident, and that it detected two breaches of environmental code that contributed to the escape: A lack of appropriate safety measures, and that the facilities relied on land support services for the operation.
The company has 15 days to respond to the charges and present a plan to correct the second charge, and another 15-day period to implement its fixes to the problems.
But the first charge is considered “grave” by the SMA, since the damage was not repairable. As a result, it could lead to a sanction of up to 10,000 UTA units (an evolving financial unit based on Chilean pesos), equivalent at its current rate of around USD 8.7 million (EUR 7.7 million). Its farm concession could also be revoked.
The company has already reported a loss of USD 3.5 million (EUR 3.1 million) associated with the escape.
In a statement to SalmonExpert, Marine Harvest said it was reviewing the report filed by authorities and claimed that it does not yet amount to formal charges, a sanction, or other penalties.
