Chilean fishermen sue authorities after mass salmon mortalities

Demanding compensation after Sernapesca allowed 9,000 tonnes of dead salmon  dumped in the sea in 2016.

A lawsuit against the State of Chile before the First Civil Court of Puerto Montt presented a series of groups of fishermen, divers, assistant divers, and boat owners of Ancud, Chiloé (heart of Chile’s salmon farming industry) last Friday, demanding compensation after the dead salmon was dumped across the Chiloe coast in 2016.

According laopiniondechiloe, action has been taken by multiple unions representing workers interests called Nueva Alianza, Barlovento and Los macheros de Mar Brava.

In May SalmonBusiness reported that Judges ruled Sernapesca, the Chilean Fisheries Directorate, should not have been granted an “emergency license” to several companies who dumped 9,000 tonnes of salmon in 2016 when a blood algal led to massive killing of fish.

The claim said that that “with the indirect consequences generated, those affected have been affected in their daily lives, in their way of relating to their economic environment and of facing a series of difficulties generated by the loss of activity, of its competitiveness against other areas and the alteration that every person suffers when their resources are depleted.”

They are seeking 24 million Chilean Pesos (EUR 31 thousand) in damages from Sernapesca as well as the Directorate of Maritime Territory, Directemar.

 

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