SALMON FARMING

We work on communication, citizen participation, and advocacy actions to raise awareness about the impacts of salmon farming activities in areas of high ecological value and great ecosystem fragility, such as marine protected areas. The actions we promote are inspired by lessons learned from the industry’s expansion in Chile.

Justification

The rapid expansion of the salmon farming industry in Patagonia has led to significant environmental problems that call into question its sustainability.

In Chile, this activity has increased its production by nearly 3,500% over the last three decades, sequentially occupying the fjords of Chilean Patagonia, starting in the Los Lagos Region, then advancing to the Aysén Region, and finally reaching the Magallanes region.

However, evidence shows that poor salmon farming practices cause harmful effects, resulting in social conflicts between different marine users, negative impacts on biodiversity, and disruption of important ecosystem services (water quality, sediment quality, other commercially important species, and marine resources, among others). Furthermore, the farming centers have been located in areas of high ecological value and great ecosystem fragility.

Context

In 2018, in response to the industry’s plans to expand into the Beagle Channel, the organizations grouped in the Forum for the Conservation of the Patagonian Sea and Areas of Influence expressed their categorical rejection of the installation of salmon farming centers – which involve introduced species of salmon and trout – due to the catastrophic and irreversible damage it would cause to the ecological, economic, cultural, and aesthetic values of one of the most prominent sectors of the Patagonian marine ecosystem. The Forum answered the call of citizens, and through its organizations, provided the technical and conservation arguments supporting the unanimous position: that salmon farming should not be allowed in the Beagle Channel.

In June 2021, the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica, and the South Atlantic Islands of Argentina approved a law prohibiting “the cultivation and production of salmonids in the provincial jurisdictional waters” with the goal of “ensuring the protection, preservation, and safeguarding of natural resources, genetic resources, and freshwater and marine ecosystems.” This was a citizen victory in which the Forum, through its organizations, played a key role in alerting about the dangers of salmon farming. However, there is still much to be done.

STRATEGY

We work on education, outreach, and communication actions alongside scientific researchers, community and union actors, local governments, and legislators, to raise awareness about the technical and conservation-based foundations of the Forum’s organizations’ position.

PUBLICATIONS

Background

We developed a position paper on salmon farming and protected areas in Chile and presented our stance at national and international forums in Chile (Protected Areas and Communities Meeting) and Canada (IMPAC 5) in 2023.

We participated in workshops, conversations, and interviews, where the Forum’s organizations were able to present technical and testimonial arguments on the need to halt the expansion of the industry in Tierra del Fuego.

We systematized information to produce documents with technical and conservation arguments that support the unanimous opposition of all the Forum’s organizations to the expansion of salmon farming in the Beagle Channel. We issued a regional declaration “Beagle Channel without Salmon Farms” in 2019 and a position paper “On the Possible Operation of Salmonid Aquaculture in Tierra del Fuego” in 2018. In 2013, the Beagle Channel had already been identified as one of the Lighthouses of the Patagonian Sea.

Through these publications, we have collaborated in campaigns led by various sectors of civil society (local, national, and regional organizations, scientific institutions, chefs, tour operators, and indigenous peoples). The documents were even mentioned by Argentine lawmakers during the deliberation of Provincial Law No. 1,355 on June 10, 2021, which prohibits the cultivation and production of salmonids in the jurisdictional waters of Tierra del Fuego.