By: Peter Hartmann
(Read news in Aisen Reserva de Vida)
When in April 2021 we talked in our radio program "La Otra Cara de la Moneda" in Radio Santa María with the biologist Dr. Vreni Hässermann about the Patagonian Sea(https://www.aisenreservadevida.cl/2022/01/21/la-otra-cara-de-la-moneda-biologa-vreni-haussermann/), one of the best interviews we have ever had, we remembered two important facts: That this sea contains fourteen different ecosystems (did you know that? Do you know anyone who is studying these ecosystems?) and that in ten years of underwater study of the Huinay Center, comparing photos, they had realized that in that time had disappeared 75% of the biodiversity that had been recorded a decade earlier. A terrible discovery and conclusion not minor and whose cause was attributed to the change that had occurred in the vicinity, the emergence of dozens of salmon farms.
The truth is that we did not give it the importance that such a background has and time went by and from time to time we made this information known, without emphasizing its seriousness. Last February we delivered it in one of the workshops of the Regional Commission of Uses of the Coastal Border, CRUBC, and they looked at us as if we were exaggerating or lying, just as the salmon farming people were doing to torpedo the ECMPO. In any case, that is on record and the CRUBC had better be warned. That is, if they really care about the biodiversity, integrity and future of the Aisen Sea.
Last week, a friend of ours made us a digital poster with an illustration of underwater life with salmon farming, emphasizing that in the fjords of Chilean Patagonia in a decade, pollution and other consequences of salmon farming, causes "75% REDUCTION IN MARINE BIODIVERSITY" and calls to protect our biodiversity. As we had doubts, we asked Dr. Häussermann. The answer was that the referential illustration was rather of tropical sea and that the ten years of her survey was between 2003 and 2013, that is, some time ago. He also gave us the publication where they made this discovery known (it is only in English): Häussermann, V., Försterra, G., Melzer, R. R. & Meyer, R. 2013. Gradual changes of benthic biodiversity in Comau Fjord, Chilean Patagonia - lateral observations over a decade of taxonomic research. Spixiana 36 (2): 161-171.
The truth is that reading this paper makes you want to cry, and it is clear that the salmon farms in the Comau Fjord in those ten years increased from three to twenty-three and that there was also overexploitation of benthic fishing, whose landings consequently fell by 60%. And that 75% of desertification is an average, because there were species that disappeared. We understand that all this happened in the Huinay Coastal Marine Protected Area, that is, a protected area! Now, that the situation has subsequently improved, we do not believe it; in fact, in March-April 2021 there was a whole marine catastrophe in that area that was well documented and well known. And Vreni, her husband, also a biologist, and her colleagues are no longer in Huinay.
Although the results of this study correspond to a specific time and sector and other sectors have different characteristics, there are bound to be places with minor impacts and others with possibly greater ones. In fact, there is a reason why Sernapesca decided years ago to remove salmon farms from the Aisén Fjord and at the end of the summer the problems are usually repeated in other fjords. In addition, year after year 30 to 50% of anaerobic salmon farms are repeated and studies by the UACH in the AMCP of Pitipalena-Anihue also show a worrying panorama and studies by the U. de Los Lagos point to the anoxia of the fjord and the Quitralco Nature Sanctuary. It is also debatable whether the impact of the salmon farms has diminished since then. In any case, although in other places and eleven years after that study, the situation may be of lesser impact, the fact is that there are impacts, and they are not negligible. And even if they were only 25% as some media misinformed about the Huinay study, that is still serious and still warrants action! And even worse, there are not even baselines to compare, because for years the Environmental Assessment Studies for salmon farms have been reduced to simple declarations, even in protected areas! And of course, they can tell us that this decrease in biodiversity is only in decapods and benthic species that cannot be uprooted, but it turns out that the evidence is that there are also serious disorders in algae, dinoflagellates, cetaceans and other marine mammals, birds and fish. And not to mention the impact of an invasive exotic species such as salmon. Where are the precautionary and preventive principles of the Environmental Law? Where is the voice of academia and science making this desertification visible? The truth is that the anthropogenic footprint that is being left in the Patagonian sea is not at all negligible! And we hope that someday at least the respective studies will be done, a baseline will be available and the salmon farms will be eradicated from the protected areas where they should never be!