Environment watchdog demands Blumar action plan
Chilean salmon farmer Blumar has been ordered to urgently produce a plan outlining the actions it will take if environment is affected by the 2,900 tonnes of dead fish trapped in the wreckage of its sunken Caicura fish farm, in Reloncaví Sound in Los Lagos region.
More than 740,000 fish died when 16 cages sank almost 1,000 feet to the seabed in bad weather on June 27. The remaining two cages at the site were damaged, allowing the escape of nearly 104,000 salmon with an average weight of 3.8 kg.
Chile’s Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) has demanded an Early Warning Plan “which includes a precise design of actions to be carried out against possible exceedances in variables that affect the marine environment, as a consequence of the mortality that occurred after the collapse of the cages”.
Monitoring plan
Blumar must also provide the SMA with online access to data collected by sensors being used in an environmental monitoring plan that the company presented to the Port Authority of Puerto Montt.
New regulations intended to prevent the collapse of Chilean fish farms and fish escapes are due to be published shortly.
They include greater security in anchorages, requirements that seek to guarantee the useful life of cages and nets, and mandatory certifications for salmon farming structures.
Chile’s Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Román Zelaya, said the new regulations “are part of the continuous review of the regulatory requirements to which the industry must be subjected to maintain high standards of safety and environmental protection, and avoid episodes such as the cage collapse and salmon escape occurred a few weeks ago in Reloncaví”.
