Project

Photo: #RealChile 

Protecting Patagonian Seas from Salmon Farms

The Straight of Magellan in Chilean Patagonia (or Magallanes, as it’s known in Spanish) hosts the largest number of natural protected areas in the country. Permanent snow feeds the idyllic landscape, which has been shaped by glaciers, lakes, rivers and seas. Within its bounds live protected species—blue whales, sperm whales, Magellanic penguins, elephant seals, leatherback turtles, and southern and Chilean dolphins.

The cold waters of this far corner of the world are pristine; this makes them more sensitive to high-impact human activities. And now they’re being stressed by the arrival of salmon farms, which have already caused severe environmental damage in regions further north.

In Chile, the salmon industry uses harmful techniques and operates without proper regulation. Its rapid growth has overwhelmed coastal waters, filling them with huge amounts of antibiotics, chemicals, and salmon feces. These pollutants have led to partial or, in some places, complete lack of oxygen in the water, threating all forms of marine life.

Large salmon farms in the Magallanes region are already causing big damage. According to a government audit, more than half of the salmon farms operating there are affecting the availability of oxygen in the water, a condition that did not occur prior to their arrival.

What AIDA is doing

  • Filing two complaints with Chile's Environmental Superintendency: the first to request that it investigate and sanction the damage caused by the salmon industry in Magallanes; and the second against the Australis Mar company for generating a lack of oxygen in the waters of the Kawésqar National Reserve. As a result of the first complaint, an environmental court set a key precedent by recognizing the relationship between the lack of oxygen in Patagonian waters and the operation of salmon farms.
  • Alerting authorities in charge of six international treaties to the damages the salmon industry is causing to Chilean Patagonia, and requested that they visit the Magallanes region to investigate the impacts and urge the Chilean government to protect the region.
  • Preparing, together with our allies, a technical legal report addressed to the National Forestry Corporation to request that the salmon industry be declared incompatible with the protection objectives of the Kawésqar National Reserve and that the ancestral rights of the Kawésqar indigenous communities be recognized.
  • Leading a communications campaign to raise national and international awareness of the serious risks the salmon industry poses to the Magallanes region and to all the seas of Patagonia. 

Partners:

Greenpeace Chile | FIMA

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Indigenous Rights, Freshwater Sources, Accountability and Transparency, Climate Change

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