As the fishing industry is under strict criticism the demand for moratorium is increasing simultaneously. In Puerto Natales, a small city of some 20,000 residents, a group of mostly tourism and local fishing industry representatives launched the Patagonia without Salmon Farms Social Coordinating Committee (CSPSS). In its first public declaration, the CSPSS called for a moratorium on southward expansion of Chile’s US$2.2 billion farmed salmon industry, joining organizations such as Fundacion Terram, Oxfam Chile and the National Confederation of Artisan Fishermen in demanding that the government cease issuing new aquaculture concessions.
CSPSS member Romano Totoro told the media that they’ve seen what happened when the salmon companies were given free reign to set up shop in Regions X and XI. And that’s what worries them. They don’t want what happened there to be repeated here in their region. Totoro and other CSPSS members fear salmon farms will pollute the area’s waters and thus spoil the local fishing and tourism industries, on which the city depends heavily.
It is also said that nothing has been done because the waterways in the channels, bays and sounds are very intricate. Totoro said that the water gets flushed out by the tides very slowly, so that whatever virus, antibiotic or pesticide is introduced into the water sticks around that much longer.
CSPSS member Juan Jose Garrido, a legal representative for Puerto Natales’ “Glaciares de la Patagonia” Artisan Fishing Society, explained that along the coast we have the problem of red tides and now, here in the interior, they’re going to contaminate with ISA and with all of the chemicals they put in the salmon feed. They’ll pollute everything.
