The SMA warns, but the final environmental control of salmon production in Chile is done through the information provided by Sernapesca at the end of each year.
Photo: Sernapesca.
Chile's Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) has carried out the third mass warning of the year to salmon farming centers (CES in its Spanish acronym) holders regarding the production of its ongoing production cycles. Sent by e-mail to a total of 267 salmon farms, this was the largest mailing not only in 2024 but since this measure began to be implemented in September of last year.
The first mass warning sent by the SMA was to 237 salmon farms in the south of the country, in September 2023. The second, and first of this year, arrived in January, when 223 CES were notified, and the next, third in the total count and second of 2024, during June, when 255 sites were contacted.
As said, this third warning of the year has been sent to the holders of 267 salmon farming centers, all of them located in the southern part of Chile: 104 in the Los Lagos Region, 123 in the Aysén Region, and 40 in the Magallanes Region.
The warnings sent include the estimated production to date and its evaluation according to the maximum limit authorized in the respective Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA in its Spanish acronym).
The sending is made within the framework of the SMA's Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Strategy of Salmon Farming Centers, and the Environmental Intelligence Strategy that began to be implemented for CES production issues in September last year with the aim to strengthen prevention efforts and thus avoid overproduction in the sector.
"These warnings allow holders to be alerted as to how their level of production is going according to what is permitted in their environmental permit so that they can adjust to it," explained Marie Claude Plumer, Superintendent of the Environment.
"The objective of this mechanism is to act preventively and promote not only environmental compliance by the industry but also to avoid overproduction in the sector," she added.
The Chilean Superintendency of the Environment's objectives with these periodic mass warnings are clear, but where does the data supporting them come from?
According to the SMA's information, the updated data is obtained from the Aquaculture Control Information System (SIFA) of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) and includes the identification of the Auditable Unit - identification of the owner, geographic location, and code of the center in the National Aquaculture Registry (RNA) -, as well as the Environmental Qualification Resolution that establishes its maximum authorized production, and the estimated effective production to date.
The SMA has created an original system consisting of an algorithm that allows estimating the production of centers with ongoing cycles and subsequently informing the owners through these massive warnings with analysis so that they can implement the necessary preventive actions to avoid exceeding the maximum authorized in their RCA at the end of the production cycle.
However, despite its usefulness, Chile's Superintendency of the Environment recalled that this is a report of estimated production and that the environmental control of the aquaculture sector's production is carried out through the information provided by Sernapesca at the end of each year, once the production cycle has ended.
So far in 2024, the SMA has already initiated a sanctioning procedure against Blumar for overproduction at the Córdova 1 Salmon Farming Center, in the Kawésqar National Reserve, in Magallanes, and filed charges against Multi X after finding overproduction of salmon in different cycles between 2014 and 2021 at a site located inside the 'Las Guaitecas' National Reserve, Aysén Region.
