News Categories Environment REPORT: SOUTHERN CHILE’S COASTAL WATERS “TRASHED”
| REPORT: SOUTHERN CHILE’S COASTAL WATERS “TRASHED” |
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| Written by Patagonia Times Staff | |
| Monday, 13 April 2009 | |
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Floating Debris Traced To Region X’s Aquaculture Industry “The composition of FMD in our study area was very particular and similar to that reported for the East China Sea and Hiroshima bay (Japan),” reads the report, entitled “Floating marine debris in fjords, gulfs and channels of southern Chile.” More than 80 percent of that FMD is made up of Styrofoam, plastic bags and other plastic fragments, they concluded. The researchers determined that much of the Styrofoam and plastic can be traced to offshore aquaculture operations. Shellfish farms use Styrofoam to buoy their nets. Many of the plastic bags Hinojosa and Thiel found, furthermore, were easily identified as feed sacks used on salmon farms. “The most common item was Styrofoam, which is intensively used as a flotation device in local mussel farms. Other marine debris (food sacks) was directly related to salmon farms. Thus, the distribution and composition of FMD strongly suggests that sea-based aquaculture activities are responsible for a large proportion of the FMD in the study area,” the UCN report went on to say. Certainly a turnoff for tourists, the high concentrations of FMD are also a threat to area wildlife, according to Hinojosa and Thiel. The problem, furthermore, threatens to spread. The waters off Chilean Patagonia could soon see their FMD concentrations rise as the salmon industry continues to expand southward, the researchers concluded. Hinojosa and Thiel carried out their research between 2002 and 2005, during which time they took seven cruises through the Internal Sea of Chiloé and Los Chonos Archipelago. By Patagonia Times Staff ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 13 April 2009 ) |
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