Salmones Antártica’s proposed relocations to cost USD 18 million

Chilean salmon and trout farmer Salmones Antártica has submitted four projects to the government’s Environmental Assessment Service to relocate part of its operations in the Aysén Region. Each project involves an investment of USD 4.5 million (EUR 4.4 million), bringing total investment to USD 18 million (EUR 17.6 million).

Salmones Antártica, established in 1982, is owned by Nippon Suisan America Latina, which in turn is part of the Japanese holding Nippon Suisan Kaisha (Nissui). It has operations on Chiloe Island and in Puerto Aysen, Chile.

Relocating and merging operations is an issue that Chile’s entire USD 5 billion (EUR 4.9 billion) a year salmon fishing industry is facing, following a mandate issued by Chilean President Gabriel Boric, who took office in March 2022. SalmonChile President Arturo Clément has said that the organization’s domestic focus will be on consolidating operations and ensuring environmental sustainability.

“Today we have 1,300 concessions and use 400. We have to insist on a better territorial ordering where all the activities in the sea can have their space and development. In this sense, we want to continue promoting the process of mergers and relocation of concessions,” he said previously. “This is a process that has been 10 years in the making and we must continue working to have fewer but larger concessions, with a greater distance between each other, which is very normal from an environmental, health, and productive point of view.”

According to information submitted by Salmones Antártica to the Chilean government’s aquaculture authority, the company is seeking to adhere to new rules government aquaculture operations while maintaining alignment with its regional development strategy, which “seeks to strike the appropriate balance between economic growth, the improvement of the quality of life of the region’s inhabitants, and environmental stewardship.”

"In this context, the relocation projects of these salmonid-farming centers are fully integrated with the search for sustainable development, through an activity that has become a regional and national economic motor which has shown that it is feasible to develop by improving environmental standards," Salmones Antártica said.

The first project seeks to move part of the company’s Punta Angosta center, located in the borough of Aysén, to a 10-hectare area that has been deemed an appropriate area for the exercise of aquaculture at Canal Costa, located south of Caleta Tronador, in the province of Aysén.

At that site, Salmones Antártica has proposed building a new grow-out center for the production of 6,200 metric tons (MT) of Atlantic salmon per each 21-month production cycle, with a harvest weight of 5.6 kilos. The center would also include the production of coho salmon and rainbow trout, with a maximum production of 4,000 MT per 14-month production cycle and a harvest weight of four kilos. Two modules are proposed for this operation, each with 10 rectangular pens measuring 30 meters in diameter, with a depth of 15 meters.

The second project involves moving part of the Punta Angosta center to a 9.9-hectare area also located in the borough and province of Aysén, in the sector of Canal Costa, south of Bahía Nauto. This center would produce 6,600 MT of Atlantic salmon per 21-month production cycle, with a harvest weight of 5.6 kilos, as well as production of 5,000 MT of coho salmon and rainbow trout per 14-month production cycle and a harvest weight of four kilos. Two modules are proposed, each with 10 rectangular pens.

The third proposal presented by Salmones Antártica would combine part of its San Sebastián center and part of the Punta Angosta center, both located in the borough of Aysén, and relocate them to a new 10-hectare concession located in the Canal Costa sector. This project proposes 4,000 MT of Atlantic salmon production per each 21-month cycle, with a harvest weight of 5.6 kilos, as well as 2,750 MT of coho salmon and rainbow trout per 14-month production cycle and a harvest weight of four kilos. It would also have two modules, each with 10 rectangular pens.

The fourth proposal also aims to merge and relocate part of the grow-out centers at San Sebastián and Punta Angosta, with relocation to a 10-hectare sector in Canal Costa, south of Bahía Nauto, for the production of 6,600 MT of Atlantic salmon per 21-month production cycle, with a harvest weight of 5.6 kilos, as well as 5,000 MT tons of coho salmon and rainbow trout per 14-month production cycle, with a harvest weight of four kilos. All of this project is to be carried out at sea, with the installation of 20 pens also measuring 30 meters in diameter, with a depth of 15 meters.

At the beginning of the year, the head of Chile’s Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Subpesca), Alicia Gallardo, outlined to the senate the government’s plans to relocate some 500 salmon farming concessions out of a total of 1,320 that the industry operates, with plans to merge some farming centers.

Chile’s total acreage devoted to salmon aquaculture is expected to be reduced by 18 percent, with larger centers being formed but with more distance between them. Gallardo said priority will be given to moving sites near the coastline and with water-recirculation problems. At the same time, Subpesca will continue reviewing sites or groups of salmon concessions that meet the characteristics for possible relocation. The idea is to have fewer, larger, and more-distant concessions to improve sustainability while facilitating the inspection of the sector.

In 2020, Salmones Antártica was issued a citation by SMA for exceeding its mortality storage capacity by 80 percent at three of its farming centers.

Photo courtesy of Fundación Chile