The salmon industry in Patagonia is out of control: Comptroller General´s Office confirms the Far West denounced by Ecoceanos and social and indigenous organizations

• The Comptroller General’s Office delivered a report on the irregularities and lack of effective oversight of the Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture, and the National Fisheries Service regarding the impacts of the territorial and productive expansion of the salmon industry in southern Chile.
• Of the 113 action plans to manage salmon escapes and to confront the blooms of toxic and harmful algae, Sernapesca had only approved four, while 77 have not even been evaluated yet.
• The Undersecretariat for the Armed Forces (SFA) did not consider official complaints regarding 12 cultivation centers that existed outside the concession areas. And the Superintendency of the Environment must report on the type of actions it took derived from the review of the illegal locations of salmon farming centers.

Santiago de Chile, May 10th, 2021 (Ecoceanos News) – A recent report by the Comptroller General´s Office of Chile detected a series of irregularities in the control that state agencies must carry out to the salmon farming industry that operates in the South of Chile. The Comptroller’s Office pointed out that irregular audits have prevented environmental prevention actions, such as safeguarding the quality of water and ecosystems and natural resources.

The Comptroller General’s Office of the Republic (CGR) is a superior supervisory body of the State Administration, autonomous from the government. It controls the legality of administrative acts and safeguards the correct use of public funds. Its work is eminently supervisory of a legal, accounting and financial nature. And supervises that the activity of the State Administration complies with the legal system, the Constitution, laws and international treaties. It also has a leading role in preventing corruption.

Informe de Contraloría en Español (PDF)

INFOrme contraloria fiscalizacion salmoneras sernapesca

Subpesca and Sernapesca: Are they accomplices of the salmon industry in Chile?

According to what was expressed in its Audit report No. 335, the Comptroller’s Office reviewed the inspection and control activities carried out by Sernapesca, Subpesca, and other State Administration bodies, between January 1, 2017 and March 31 of 2019, detecting serious irregularities.

Among them, it stands out that Sernapesca does not have a procedure to evaluate intensive aquaculture activities, specifically those that ensure that the concession holder locates their rafts-cages within the delivered area.

At the same time, this state control body did not have a unified or back-up registry of the control activities carried out in salmonid farming centers during 2019.

Subpesca and Superintendency of the Environment: Letting go freely in national parks

Subpesca could not accredit a formal and complete evaluation to modify the decrees that declare Suitable Areas for Aquaculture (AAA) that are located within the perimeter of national parks.

Article 13 bis of Decree No. 320, of 2001, of the Ministry of Economy, and the Environmental Regulation for Aquaculture, determines that salmon farming centers must maintain a minimum distance of 2,778 meters from marine parks or marine reserves, and that the cultivation centers with extensive production systems must maintain a minimum distance of 400 meters from these areas.

Other irregularities were constituted by the long periods of time for the delivery of technical reports.

Avoiding evaluating complaints about contingency plans, massive leaks and algae bloom of 113 action plans to manage escapes of salmon, which are exotic carnivorous species, and to confront the blooms of toxic and harmful algae, Sernapesca had only approved four, while 77 had not even been evaluated, says the main office that controls the state administration.

Likewise, the Undersecretariat for the Armed Forces (SFA) did not respond to Sernapesca’s complaints regarding 12 cultivation centers that existed outside the concession areas, says the report that reviewed how the State of Chile is monitoring the salmon industry.

The Comptroller’s Office asked the Superintendency of the Environment to report on the type of actions it carried out, based on the review of the illegal locations of the salmon farming centers within 60 business days from the receipt of this document. final report that was dated April 20, 2021.

The Environmental Assessment Service – SEA: No criteria to evaluate salmon farms near protected wild areas

The Comptroller’s report indicates that the Environmental Assessment Service (SEA) lacks objective and uniform criteria to ensure that industrial salmon farming projects located or close to Protected Wild Areas are evaluated in accordance with the corresponding regulations.

Control of salmon consumers is necessary in the salmon industry in Chile

Ecoceanos Centre pointed out that the Chilean State is not actually implementing or complying with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approved by the UN General Assembly in its 2030 Agenda, in order to protect the planet, specifically SDG No. 14.4 , linked to the oceans.

14.4. By 2020, fisheries exploitation must be effectively regulated and overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices must be stopped, and scientifically based management plans must be implemented to restore stocks of fish in the shortest possible time, at least reaching levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield according to their biological characteristics

Ecoceanos supports demands of social organizations, indigenous communities and scientists

On April 12th, 64 coastal organizations, communities of native peoples, scientists and social movements of the Chiloe archipelago and Patagonian regions demanded that the Chilean State
– A moratorium on the expansion of the salmon industry
– Do not grant more salmon concessions
– The departure of cultivation centers from vulnerable ecosystems such as fjords, channel lakes and protected wild areas,
– No more expansion of current aquaculture concessions or increase of biomass in existing concessions.

The demands coordinated by “Defendamos Chiloe”

«The organizations here signatory come to demand from the GOVERNMENT OF CHILE an immediate moratorium on salmon expansion: no more delivery of new concessions, no more expansion of current aquaculture concessions or increase in biomass in existing concessions; as well as the URGENT DEPARTURE of all fragile marine ecosystems such as lakes, fjords and channels of our “Chilota” Ecoregion and from there to the entire Patagonian “maritory”»

Ecoceanos Centre: Support campaign to boycott the purchase and consumption of industrial chemical salmon

In the current context of destructive territorial and productive expansion of the mega salmon industry, together with the accomplice action of government entities, Ecoceanos Centre promotes the campaign of not buying and consuming the so-called “chemical salmon” from Chilean southern farming centers. The boycott is a mechanism to achieve the local communities demands.