Welcome to Region 10
The northern entry point to the spectacular Patagonia, Chile's Region 10 is home to the country's salmon farming industry that was at its peak responsible for the second highest production of farmed salmon in the world after Norway - until the ISA virus virtually wiped it out over the past several years.
Scientific Concerns
Dr. Alejandro Bushman of la Universidad de Los Lagos in Puerto Montt explains the ecological impacts of salmon farms in Chile, including the ISA virus, sea lice, escapes, waste, chemicals, toxins, and low-oxygen problems.
Unleashing the ROV
We spent a day on the water near the village of Cochamo with a research team from Oceana Chile - led by Dr. Matthias Gorny - to examine the sea bottom beneath a former salmon farm using this remote controlled underwater camera.
Looking beneath the surface
Dr. Gorny's research assistant helps send the ROV on its way. We would spy a desert-like ocean floor in the radius of the farm, covered in debris and showing very little of the sea life common to this area.
Captain of the Camera
Dr. Gorny - the Scientific Director for Oceana Chile and a global pioneer in underwater scientific photography - controls the ROV and video feed with a remote control and laptop. We were creating a video recording of the exploration to show at a later date.
Uneasy Juxtaposition
Salmon and mussel farms riddle Chile's coast, marring the otherwise breathtaking Patagonian vistas.
The junk they leave behind
Marine Harvest has gone from 70 operational Chilean farms to 10 in the wake of ISA - reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in global losses in 2008 as result of the Chilean crisis. This closed work yard in Calbuco is a graveyard of salmon farming equipment.
Marine Harvest Junk Yard
More relics of Marine Harvest's abandoned Calbuco operations.
Net Loss
This AquaChile work yard is filled with large piles of copper-painted nets no longer needed as farms close. The copper anti-fouling agent used on these nets poses another problem for Chile's marine environment.
Closed for Business
Another victim of ISA - this farm near the village of Cochamo sits empty.
Dismantled Farms...
... litter the beaches and foreshores of Region 10, like this one on the shore of Lake Hullinco
Ghost Farm
Another abandoned salmon farm on Lake Hullinco, this one belonging to Fjord Seafood, which was bought by Marine Harvest.
No Sign of them
Even the sign is gone from this recently abandoned Invertec salmon farming operation.
All that remains...
...is a few feet of dock, some empty sheds, and metal components from a disassembled farm.
...And a few empty chemical containers
Like this one for treating the ISA virus.
Hazards of the job
These warning signs are common throughout Chile's salmon farmers - given the toxic chemicals they use.
How to dispose of dead fish
A handy 5-step training tool. Where the dead fish go from there is another question...
Messy neighbours
This shellfish diver, Denis, is glad to see the salmon farmers gone from his foreshore on this lake on the Island of Chiloé. For years, garbage - like these empty feed bags - and waste from the nearby farms have washed up on his beach.
Feed bags
Printed on the dozens of empty feedbags in Denis' yard is the warning "Not for human consumption." These bags are variously from Salmofood, a large Chilean producer, and EWOS, the feed arm of Norwegian giant Mainstream/Cermaq.
White Flag bag
This discarded feedbag form the empty farm in the background somehow made its way to the top of a tree in Denis' yard - a fitting momento of the now retreating industry.
Crap from the farms
These mussel buoys show the waste from nearby salmon farms.
The people left behind
This woman, from a village on Lake Hullinco, lost her job at a fish feed factory due to the ISA crisis - now she struggles to feed her children.
Rainbow over troubled town
This village on Lake Hullinco, on the island of Chiloé, has been particularly hard-hit by the industry crisis.
They've got him surrounded
The traditional territory and family farm of Francisco Vera Millaquen, spokesperson for the indigenous Mapuche people of this region near Puerto Montt, are literally surrounded by 5 major fish feed factories. The one behind him stands only 100 feet from his farm. The toxic coal it's powered by pollutes his potatoes and groundwater.
Divide and Conquer
Our interview with Francisco was cut short by a hostile group of factory workers historically at odds the Mapuche and their concerns about the industry's environmental impacts on their traditional territory. The scuffle had to be broken up by police, though it remained non-violent. The tension throughout the countryside in the wake of the ISA virus is palpable.
Tainted Creek
Francisco shows us the contamination of the creek that runs behind his farm from fish feed factories.
Tainted Creek cont'd.
The creek is beset by five different factories, polluting it with their effluent and smoke.
For the Birds
This BioMar feed factory is a popular hangout for scavenging birds looking to get a taste of rotten fish powder.
Officina Central
Marine Harvest's Chilean headquarters in Puerto Montt.
Chilean Giant
Unlike the other major salmon farming countries, the Norwegian giants still don't have a monopoly on the Chilean market; AquaChile is the largest Chilean company in the business.
Would you like some drugs with your farmed salmon roll?
Drug companies play a major part in the Chilean salmon farming industry. Their billboards and factories are visible throughout Region 10.
Ground Zero: Quellón
The town of Quellón on the island of Chiloé is perhaps the best example of the collpase of the Chilean salmon farming industry which has seen 24,000 workers lose their jobs almost over night.
Beaches of Quellón
There is little work left for former artisanal fisherman, turned fish farm employees, who've in turn lost their jobs in the industry.
Skeleton Ship
The beaches are strewn with abandoned boats.
The smart money's in Urchins
One of the few reasonably healthy artisanal fisheries left in Chile - sea urchins for the Japanese market.
"Never eat seafood from Calbuco"...
... We were told by one of our local guides. An abandoned Marine Harvest farm sandwiched between row upon row of farmed mussels.
Calbuco farm
A closed farm in Calbuco - formerly belonging to AquaChile, but recently sold to Trusal. A lone mortality box remains on the beached metal decking.
A little action
Workers return from cleaning a closed farm off shore.
Calbuco farm cont'd.
Abandoned buoys sit in a Calbuco work yard.
Standing up for Calbuco
These two young women helped form the Environmental Association of Calbuco to deal with the ecological and socio-economic impacts of the salmon farming industry on their home town. They stand beside a closed Mainstream (Cermaq) work yard. Behind them on the hill is a part of the village with particularly high unemployment from the industry's collapse.
Boats of a bygone era
The beaches of Calbuco are also filled with abandoned artisanal fishing boats.
Tough Times...
... On the streets of Calbuco
Scene of the Crime?
The official site of the birth of the ISA virus, Lemuy Island, though critics of the official story contend it began earlier in another location close to here.
Academia hard at work
An international delegation of scientists gathered in Puerto Varras to discuss higher standards for preventing escapes - one of the key problems with open-net salmon farms around the world.
The path ahead
The Norwegian industry responsible for the ISA crisis now sits poised to benefit from its own negligence. They are pushing along with the banks that finance the industry for the privatization of all Chilean water rights for fish farms. This would enable them to take over the farms from smaller Chilean counterparts, bankrupted from the industry collapse. Thus, the Norwegians may yet triumph from this crisis and own a monopoly in Chile like they enjoy around the world in Norway, Scotland, Ireland and Canada. They would also like to push the industry southward, deeper into the Patagonian coastline. The push to expand into Regions 11 and 12 will likely spark controversy amongst those communities disillusioned with the industry and what it has done to Region 10.
Video Library 
