Norwegian salmon farms are now coming to Argentina: They are trying to impose the salmo-industrialization in Tierra del Fuego
The Chilean organization Centro Ecocéanos calls to “the citizens, coastal communities and the tourism industry in the Argentinian Patagonia to be alert to the siren calls, with which the transnational salmon industry always arrives, to then begin to generate successive and accumulative sanitary and environmental impacts…”
Photography from eldiariodelfindelmundo.com
Buenos Aires, March 14th 2018. (Ecocéanos News)– This past Friday (09-05-2018), Argentina and Norway signed a Memorandum of Antarctic Cooperation in order to strengthen the relations that the two countries have in this continent, in an activity in which King Harald V of Norway and the Chancellor Jorge Faurie participated.
To represent the Argentinian government, the Minister of Agribusiness, Luis Miguel Etchevehere, the Undersecretary of Fishery and Aquaculture, Juan Bosch, and the President of the Argentina Investment and Trade Promotion Agency, Juan Pablo Tripodi, participated. Representing the Nordic country were Inger Solberg, director of Sustainability of the Norwegian Governmental Investment Agency, and Stein-Gunnar Bondevik, innovation director in the same agency. There were also officials from the cabinet and presidency of Argentina present.
In this context, the provincial government of Tierra del Fuego signed an agreement in Buenos Aires with the Argentina Investment and Trade Promotion Agency to, together with the government investment agency of Norway, develop feasibility studies on the development potential of intense industrial aquaculture farming in the Argentine Patagonia.
The agreement was signed by the Secretary of Agribusiness and Fishery, Kevin Colli, the Secretary of Development and Investments, Leonardo Zara, the Secretary of Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change, Mauro Pérez Toscani, and Juan Pablo Tripodi of the Argentina Investment and Trade Promotion Agency.
Coastal and export-oriented salmo-industrialization in the Beagle channel
Secretary Colli said that «the studies would start immediately and be carried out with Norwegian technology, as they are pioneers in marine aquaculture. The results, which will be available before the end of the year, will make it possible to determine not only the possibilities of venturing into this industry, but also to know which are the best sites and species to develop.»
The Argentinian authority emphasized that «this Aquaculture Development Plan goes hand in hand with the Coastal Development of the Beagle Channel and other areas of the province that are being sought to enhance, increasing the possibilities to create thousands of jobs, generate more income for the province and export quality products to the whole world.»
Meanwhile, the national deputy for Tierra del Fuego, Gastón Roma, political promoter of this initiative, said that «this aquaculture plan is one of the pillars of the economic reconversion plan for the province that will generate genuine and sustainable employment and will allow us to introduce our products internationally with a higher level of competitiveness.»
Finally, the Secretary Mauro Pérez Toscani said that «as a result of the meeting, we hope to sign the necessary agreements to start the environmental and feasibility studies, because there are many companies interested in investing.»
Ecocéanos: Argentinian citizens should inform themselves about the destructive impacts of salmon farming
Faced with this, the Chilean organization Centro Ecocéanos calls to “the citizens, coastal communities and the tourism industry in the Argentinian Patagonia to be alert to the siren calls, with which the transnational salmon industry always arrives, to then begin to generate successive and accumulative sanitary and environmental impacts, such as eutrophication of the seabed and water column, or toxic microalgae blooms derived from organic and chemical pollution; the introduction of viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases, such as mass infestations of Caligus sea lice, or the abusive use of chemicals, antibiotics and antiparasitic agents».
Ecocéanos said that “to know what could happen in the Argentinian Tierra del Fuego, they should look at what has happened in the Chiloé archipelago, and what is starting to happen in the Chilean Patagonia. This transnational export-oriented mega industry is a “feast today famine tomorrow” situation for the local coastal economies and communities.
With information from: http://www.eldiariodelfindelmundo.com/noticias/2018/03/12/76189-noruegos-realizaran-estudio-de-factibilidad
Traduccion: Ebba Ohman,Isbcn
