Salmon Farming Threatens Chile's Patagonian Lakes

Santiago, Chile - A new WWF study just released finds that the production of farmed salmon in Chile's unique Patagonian lakes has doubled in the last decade, contaminating them with nutrient pollution, invasive species, disease and harmful chemicals.

The study Salmon Farming in the Lakes of Southern Chile: History, Tendencies, and Environmental Impacts urges the Chilean industry to move farmed salmon out of freshwater ecosystems to closed-containment recirculation systems on land.

"These lakes are a global treasure and pollution from salmon farming is completely avoidable," said David Tecklin, WWF's representative in Chile.

"Chile has become the world's second largest producer of farmed salmon but the industry must rapidly improve its environmental practices if it expects to survive in the global marketplace." Moving farmed salmon from freshwater lakes to land-based closed systems would reduce environmental pressures and increase Chile's competitiveness in the global salmon trade. The majority of salmon consumed in the US, for example, is farmed, and the bulk of it comes from Chile.

Lake pollution

In an effort to replicate salmon's natural lifecycle, the salmon industry has used Chile's freshwater lakes for the past 25 years to produce salmon smolt (large juvenile fish), which are later transported to marine sites to mature. Smolt production has become — along with urban sewage — the most significant point source of pollution for Chile's unique and pristine freshwater lakes.

SOURCE: salmon