Watchdog inspected salmon farms more often than all other industries together
Chilean sites were visited 2,056 times by Superintendency of the Environment last year
Published
More than half of the 3,631 inspections made by Chile’s environment watchdog last year were carried out on salmon farms, sector body SalmonChile has said.
“Salmon farming is, by far, the most inspected economic sector at the national level by the Superintendency of the Environment (SMA). According to statistics from this service, during 2023, 3,631 inspections were carried out and, of these, 57% (2,056) corresponded to inspections in farming centres. In other words, more than half of the activity inspected by the SMA was related to salmon farming, when compared to mining, agriculture, energy, etc.,” said SalmonChile.
Of those 2,056 inspections, according to the association, 98.2% ended without any disciplinary proceedings. In other words, salmon farming registered a high degree of compliance with environmental regulations, with only 1.8% of inspections finding fault.
Inspections up by 56%
“It is important to note that in the last three years, SMA inspections have increased by 56% compared to the previous period,” said SalmonChile, which was responding to a report by the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic that questions the level of oversight of the industry.
There is no other industry in the country in which all its operating points are connected online and in real time with a regulatory entity
SalmonChile
The Office is a constitutionally autonomous body of the Chilean government that is in charge of the control of the legal aspects, management, pre-audit and post-audit functions of all the activities of the centralised and decentralised civil service.
SalmonChile pointed out that the increase in SMA activity “is facilitated by the use of satellites to review the positioning of [farm] concessions and by the transfer of information from [aquaculture agency] Sernapesca’s systems to the SMA, which gives it access to information on mortality, harvest and stocks of each centre, all online”.
“There is no other industry in the country in which all its operating points are connected online and in real time with a regulatory entity. This is also proof of the commitment of this sector to advance its sustainability, given that this project was developed in conjunction with the industry,” SalmonChile stated.
