[OANNES Foro] Chile's massive salmon escape raises concern, and questions

Sab Sep 1 10:24:16 PDT 2018

Science  31 Aug 2018:
Vol. 361, Issue 6405, pp. 857-858
DOI: 10.1126/science.aau7973

Chile's salmon escape demands action

1.    Daniel Gomez-Uchida
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#aff-1> 1,
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#aff-2> 2,
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#corresp-1> *, Maritza
Sepúlveda <http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#aff-1> 1,
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#aff-3> 3, Billy Ernst
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#aff-1> 1,
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#aff-4> 4, Tamara A.
Contador <http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#aff-1> 1,
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#aff-5> 5, Sergio Neira
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#aff-1> 1,
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#aff-4> 4, Chris Harrod
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#aff-1> 1,
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/857.2#aff-6> 6

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Chile's massive salmon escape raises concern, and questions

By Tomas Moggia - Translated by Brent Harlow

02 August 2018 

http://www.patagonjournal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4
155%3A-los-insospechados-alcances-de-la-masiva-fuga-de-salmones-en-isla-huar
&catid=78%3Amedioambiente&Itemid=268&lang=en

In early July, an escape of unprecedented proportions at a salmon farm run
by the Norwegian salmon farming giant Marine Harvest caused a national
uproar in Chile. Greenpeace called it “an environmental disaster with severe
and unimaginable consequences.” According to reports, a storm producing
strong winds and rain caused serious structural damage to the Punta Redonda
fish farm on Huar Island, located just south of Puerto Montt in the Los
Lagos region, freeing some 690,000 Atlantic salmon.

Due to the large-scale nature of the event, Chile's Superintendency of the
Environment (SMA) asked the regional environmental court to issue an Urgent
and Transitional Measure (MUT), which closed down salmon fish farm
operations at the site for 30 days due to its imminent and grave
environmental and public health impacts. The company itself declared that
they had temporarily suspended their operations voluntarily. The National
Fishing Service (Sernapesca) said that Marine Harvest Chile may receive a
fine of 143 million Chilean pesos ($US 222,000) and possibly the loss of its
operating permit.

According to the SMA, the environmental permit that the company has does not
consider measures for reparation, compensation, or mitigation of any impact
that may follow such a massive escape, and it was determined that in two of
the damaged cages, about 463,000 individual salmon were being treated with
an antibiotic called florfenicol, which makes them unfit for human
consumption. Despite repeated warnings from authorities about this, there
have been numerous reports of salmon being sold illegally and intensively in
the Calbuco and Puerto Montt areas, a situation which Marine Harvest Chile
also has confirmed.

The Coastal Border Defense Committee, also known as “Calbuco Emergente,”
affirms that the company, instead of using the 20 circular floating cages
set forth in their permit, used rectangular cages for at least four years.
Whatsmore, it has been alleged that the fish at the Punta Redonda salmon
farm were infested by caligus (sea lice) and the bacterial diseases SRS and
BKD.

The salmon escapees are mature, averaging 3.4 kilos (7.5 pounds) in weight,
and prior to their breaking free were planned for harvesting in two more
months. Currently, several weeks after the escape, only a small fraction of
the salmon have been recaptured -- around 40,000 -- a little more than 5% of
the total.

Under Chilean law, a company has 30 days to recover at least 10% of their
escaped salmon. If this does not occur, then the government must declare
that environmental damage has occurred. To avoid such a fate, the company is
attempting to recapture the fish by, among other things, paying local
fishermen 7,000 pesos ($US 10.85) per trapped fish.

There exist few studies about the environmental impacts of salmon escapes on
Chilean ecosystems, but experts say the likely outcomes are not encouraging.

“They are telling people that since these fish feed on pellets, they are
accustomed to being fed, and they will not feed on their own. That is a
lie," said Lisabeth van der Meer, executive director of Oceana Chile. "These
fish are invasive carnivores. When they get hungry, they will eat absolutely
anything they encounter. They are predatory fish."

In fact, a study carried out between 1995 and 1996 found that 20% of 271
escaped salmon had native fish in their stomachs, with an average of 25
pejerreyes and 40 motes per salmon stomach, so experts suspect that the fish
escapees from the Punta Redonda farm will indeed migrate in search of other
fish to feed upon. 

 Atlantic salmon are not a native species to Chile. The fish is an
introduced, invasive species originally from the west coast of the United
States and Canada. Local officials fear that, due to the magnitude of this
event, there is a strong likelihood that some of the salmon will find
suitable areas to settle and reproduce: a phenomenon that has already
occured elsewhere in Chile with species such as Chinook salmon, rainbow
trout, and brown trout.

“Clearly, the ecosystem is very fragile and such an escape is going to cause
irreparable harm. I doubt they are going to reproduce. But they can live in
the fjords for three or four years, so the ecological damage they can cause
from feeding is of great concern,” adds Oceana's Lisabeth van der Meer.

In recent days, the SMA ordered the implementation of seven provisional
measures at the Punta Redonda farm. Among them, that they remove all
structures and clear the seafloor; institute a program of periodic
reconnaissance overflights to rule out mortalities in the Seno de Reloncaví;
devise a plan for disposing of any mortalities they find; and implement a
plan for environmental vigilance of the region's most important rivers and
fresh water sites.

A strict monitoring of the area could turn out to be key for avoiding the
naturalization of the species, since in cases of massive Atlantic salmon
escapes in the United States, there have been instances of individuals
recaptured in rivers more than 100 kms (62 miles) away from their source.

“Events like this one dramatically increase uncertainty about whether we can
preserve the functional integrity of the marine ecosystems as currently
constituted. Therefore, prevention should be top priority in our efforts,”
says Rodrigo Torres, a marine biologist and oceanographer at the
Coyhaique-based environmental research group Centro de Investigación en
Ecosistemas de la Patagonia (CIEP). 

Lack of contingency plans

One aspect of this story that has generated the greatest controversy is the
lack of preparation and sheer capacity in Chile to handle an event of this
magnitude, both by the company and the salmon industry. Where are the
prevention, mitigation, and emergency measures? Whatsmore, when faced with
an incident with these characteristics, one gets the impression that there
is a high degree of permissiveness on the part of Chile's environmental and
fishing authorities when it comes to salmon farming. Is there a lack of
funding? Is it necessary to raise the evaluation standards in environmental
impact studies? Or is this sort of aquaculture simply unfeasible in the
Patagonian fjords?

“On repeated occasions, we’ve seen that there is no emergency protocol. The
industry is not prepared. But it is also because they lose nothing: the
salmon companies have insurance for such events. The companies that are
insuring salmon farms need to have stricter requirements. Ultimately, it is
all Chileans who lose the most with these escapes, and that is troubling,”
asserts van der Meer.

Fernando Villarroel, general manager of Marine Harvest Chile, indicated to
El Mercurio that “we will start a scientific investigation, with independent
investigators, that will allow us to specify the probable environmental
impact of this escape.” Once that happens, it will also be necessary to
determine if the company will pay for recovering the ecosystem, a task which
is, in itself, complex.

“The legislation must evolve to ensure safe industry practices that prevent
these accidents,” says Torres, adding that “our environmental legislation
favors human activities whose environmental externalities are much greater
than the fines they must pay for failure to comply with some norm.”

Van der Meer goes further and wonders aloud if this kind of economic
activity ought to be even practiced in the waters of southern Chile. “The
industry has to commit to minimizing the risks of salmon farming, and that
is something we have never seen from them. The quantity of antibiotics and
antiparasitics they are using does not represent a serious effort to
confronting these problems. This is what is especially worrisome. We don’t
see much will from industry to change its practices.”

Recently, the environmental consequences stemming from the escape of some
200,000 salmon from a Cooke Aquaculture site in the United States led to a
decision earlier this year by the state of Washington to close down
altogether the salmon farming industry there by 2025. Might Chilean
authorities consider such action when evaluating the future of the salmon
industry in the country? Only time will tell the true significance of this
massive salmon escape for the industry, and for Chile. 

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