Salmon industry won't give up

Daniela Estrada
August 15, 2010
Inter Press Service 

The once booming salmon industry in Chile is trying to get back on its feet after the devastating health crisis that cut production in half. But its long-term viability has been called into question.

"Salmon farming expanded quickly, without a regulatory framework or adequate controls to prevent and anticipate environmental problems or the development of transmittable fish diseases," Carlos Chávez, an expert in environmental economy and natural resources at the University of Concepción, told Tierramérica. 

Chile is second in the world in farmed salmon, after Norway, and specialises in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), as well as rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch). 

After introducing these exotic species in the 1980s, the industry here grew exponentially until mid-2007, when the infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) virus began to spread through the fish farms in the southern Chilean regions of Los Lagos, Aysén and Magallanes. 

The virus forced producers to harvest the fish early and shut down operations in order to clear the waters. The fish farms hit bottom in January 2009. 

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