One of the main environmental threats to Patagonia; Chilean salmon, a highly contested pink gold

Published 2024년 11월 9일

Tridge summary

Chiloé, a island located in southern Chile, is known for its natural beauty and fishing industry, which has seen significant growth since the 1970s. The industry's prosperity is largely due to the farming of non-native Atlantic salmon, a practice that has made Chile the world's second-largest exporter of salmon and trout. In 2023, the country exported 774,531 tonnes, generating nearly $6.5 billion in revenue, which is 2% of the country's GDP. This industry is Chile's second most important economic sector, following copper.

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Original content

With its capricious weather, rocky coasts, legends and bright yellow gorse bushes, the island of Chiloé, located 1,000 km south of Santiago, is often compared to Brittany by the French who discover southern Chile. Like the French West, the Los Lagos region is also one of the country's main fishing centres, initially thanks to the richness of its marine biodiversity but today mainly due to the intensive farming of a species that is nevertheless non-native: the Atlantic salmon. Launched in the late 1970s by foreign investors attracted by the conditions favourable to farming - among other things, its myriad of estuaries, its pure and cold waters - this activity has indeed become particularly prosperous. With 774,531 tonnes of salmon and trout exported in 2023, mainly to the United States, Japan and Brazil, Chile can boast a growth of 47% in ten years and a comfortable position as world number two. This industry brought in nearly $6.5 billion in export revenue last year ...

Source: Lefigaro