Fishing boats in Dalcaue, Chiloé, Chile. The Chilean Government presented a new draft Fisheries Law to be processed in 2024.
Photo: Adobe Stock.
Just before Christmas, on Friday 22, the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, signed the draft of the new Fisheries Law, initiating the process to establish a new regulation for fishing activity in the country. If all procedures go according to plan, Chile will have a new Fisheries Law in 2024.
"We need a new and good Fisheries Law for Chile, a law that is fair, a law that ensures the sustainability of the resources," said the Chilean president during the presentation of the bill in Caleta Quintay, Valparaíso region.
"I have spoken many times with fishermen throughout Chile, and one of the things that always surprises me is the concern and awareness that exists regarding the need to care for the sustainability of resources," said President Boric during the presentation of the new fisheries bill.
"This law - democratically legitimized - is built on scientific evidence, strengthens our oceanic and fishing vocation, recognizes the importance of our coves and coastal communities, favors the economic development of our country, employment and the preservation of our maritime entity," Boric concluded.
At the event held in Caleta Quintay, the Chilean President was accompanied by the Minister of Economy, Nicolás Grau, the Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Subpesca), Julio Salas, parliamentarians, but also representatives of artisanal and industrial fishing, among others. If concerning the Aquaculture Law the Government asked for broad agreements, in this case, they emphasized their intention to process the Fisheries Law with transparency and participation.
During the presentation, the Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Julio Salas, remarked that the initiative "emphasizes equity, in the distribution of fishery resources according to scientific-technical criteria." He also added that the project specifically stresses transparency. "How resources are distributed cannot depend on arbitrariness, or on who has more power or more resources, but must depend on scientific research and that is why science is strengthened."
Salas concluded by stating that the new law "solves a decades-old debt with the artisanal fishing world, which had been deprived of any instrument of social protection."
For his part, the Minister of Economy, Nicolás Grau, also present at the presentation, said the project "is concerned with intergenerational equity, that is, taking care that we do not take all the resources now, but that this is sustainable over time, also in terms of equity between territories, between the different productive sectors involved here."
The sustainable development of the fishing activity, equity in the sector, social protection for artisanal fishermen and fisherwomen, the scientific and technical approach and the incentive to human consumption are the main axes of this project that the Government will send to Congress this week to begin its processing in January 2024.
Sustainable development of the fishing activity. The draft of the new Chilean Fisheries Law aims to strengthen scientific research and technological innovation, promote associativity and cooperation, strengthen the value chain, and advance in economic support for fishing communities, ensuring their welfare and adaptive capacity.
Equity in the fishing sector. The project also promotes equity at different levels of activity, from intergenerational equity - which allows for the sustainable use of hydrobiological resources and marine and coastal ecosystems through appropriate conservation and environmental protection measures - to equity in the distribution of these resources in their three dimensions: artisanal-industrial; between regions - promoting territorial equity along the entire coast of the country -; and between individuals - especially contemplating gender equity and recognizing and valuing the vital role of women in the fishing sector and its value chain -.
Scientific-technical approach. Hydrobiological resources and their ecosystems are related to other subsystems - social, economic and regulatory/institutional - that interact at different levels and constitute a complex social-ecological system that requires governance to recognize their complexities and interactions. It is therefore vital to highlight and strengthen research to support decision-making related to fisheries management. This would make it possible to move towards a fisheries management approach that not only incorporates technological progress in the fisheries sector, but also considers environmental variations, inter-species relationships and human influences.
Transparency in the fishing sector and the fight against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU). Transparency in the fishing sector is projected not only from the perspective of the State administration through the disclosure of information, but also concerning fishing operations as a whole, and in the traceability of fishery products from their capture to their arrival to the consumer, ensuring that processes and transactions are sustainable and fair. Trust in science is indispensable and, therefore, understandable disclosure, strengthening peer review, and eliminating any conflict of interest is a challenge. Closely related to all this, it is essential to strengthen the instruments aimed at preventing and combating IUU fishing.
Food security and human consumption. Although domestic consumption of seafood products in Chile has currently increased by an average of 9% per year, reaching 16.56 kg per capita in 2021, this value is well below the world average, which in 2019 reached 20.5 kg per capita. The challenge is to reach the consumption of 20 kg per capita by 2027. That is why the draft of the new Fisheries Law advances in the promotion of human consumption, encouraging it through the increase of this quota and strengthening the value chain of the resources.
