(Annelore Hoffens Wenzel / 28-12-09) Some organizations, including Oceana, Yendegaia Foundation and the Chamber of Tourism of Punta Arenas, recommended last week to exclude salmon production from the productive activities proposed for the coastal edge of Magellan’s Region.

In the “Workshop on Zoning of the Coastal Edge for the Private Sector of the Province of Magellan”, organized by the Regional Government of Magellan, Oceana and Yendegaia Foundation presented the scientific arguments that make to exclude salmonid activity in that region advisable.

This workshop is part of the Zoning Process of Coastal Edge of the of Magellan’s Region and Chilean Antarctica, after which they will be defined the various productive uses that will be given to the coastal sector of the region, like tourism, fisheries, management areas and exploitation of benthic resources, or marine and aquaculture concessions, among others.

Oceana, an international marine conservation organization, and Yendegaia Foundation, concerned about the imminent expansion of salmon industry that, to date, has requested about 1,500 concessions in the Magellan’s Region, warned of the impacts that the salmon industry would have in coastal ecosystems and, in particular, in the Coastal Marine Protected Area (Área Marina Costera Protegida, AMCP) and Francisco Coloane Marine Park.

Matthias Gorny, scientific director of Oceana, said that: “Given the hydrographic features of the Strait of Magellan, it can not be assumed that the remains of food and faeces from fish farms that want to settle on some channels and sinuses connected to the Straits will dilute and distribute. On the contrary, we can deduce that they would go to Carlos III Island, adjoining the AMCP Francisco Coloane.

According to the organizations, marine ecosystems of Magellan Strait and its surroundings should be considered as whole as vulnerable marine ecosystems where there is a great diversity of fauna and flora, unique in its composition. Within it they stand cold water corals, vast meadows of macroalgae, the numerous species of whales and dolphins and many species of birds among which there is the higher diversity and abundance of penguins in Chile.

HIGH ECOLOGICAL IMPACT BECAUSE OF POLLUTION

“The pollution of about 7 centers of salmon required within Skyring and surroundings (province of Punta Arenas), is equivalent to the pollution of a city of about 600,000 inhabitants. We already know the environmental impacts generated by this activity, then it would be absurd for the Government to accept the installation of fish farms in places like the Seno Otway, where there is a large colony of Magellan penguins that has become an important global attraction” added Gorny.

Just as Otway and Skyring, Oceana highlighted the existence of other locations nationally and internationally recognized because of the high presence of dolphins, whales and birds. “The abundance of these animals is explained by the high availability of food they find there and that would diminish or disappear with the pollution of waters. We can not make the same mistake with Magellan as the one made with the Region of the Lakes. There is still time to save these ecosystems and the sustainable economic activities such as tourism and fisheries, which are incompatible with salmon industry,” said Alex Muñoz, CEO of Oceana.

This opinion was shared by representatives of the tourism sector and the Sindicato de Tripulantes de Naves Pesqueras especiales (Union of Crew of special Fishing Vessels) of Punta Arenas, who strongly opposed the granting of concessions of salmon industry in Magellan’s region. Due to the opposition, the salmon industry decided to withdraw from the workshop before its conclusion.

Finally, it should be noted that Oceana was invited by the Chamber of Tourism of Puerto Natales to inform and advise tourism sector and artisan fishing in this locality, on the problems that result from the installation of the salmon industry in that province.