Image: Huiro Regenerativo / FIS

Sernapesca, Oceana and the scientific world met to discuss the conservation and importance of algae in Chile

At the National Directorate of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca), together with the marine conservation NGO Oceana, the Chile Conservation Exchange and the Coastal Marine Research Station of the Pontificia Universidad Católica, an intersectoral meeting was held on algae, to discuss them, their regulations and the challenges of this fishery.

Photo: Sernapesca

It included the participation of Dan Reed, Research Biologist at the Marine Science Institute of UC Santa Barbara, and Jan Freiwald, Executive Director of the Reef Check Foundation. Both are experts in algae fisheries in California, United States, and have promoted lines of research associated with conservation, monitoring, management, impacts of natural and extractive events.

In said instance, the National Deputy Director of Sernapesca, Esteban Donoso, presented a pioneering project that, with the support of Oceana, seeks to establish improvements to the current traceability system, which will facilitate the declaration process for those who do not have connectivity, through a offline system, as well as improve control through the use of labels to identify raw materials from the origin to the mincing plants.

The National Director of Sernapesca, Soledad Tapia, highlighted the importance of this activity because "for Sernapesca, algae are a strategic resource, which means that they not only have biological but also socioeconomic relevance, since we have many people who depend on this fishery. For this reason, the importance of combating illegal fishing, such as through our inspection plan and also through alliances with other entities”.

For his part, Oceana's director of fisheries in Chile, César Astete, highlighted the possibility of having national and international experts in the field and seeing how the recovery of kelp forests has been worked on. “The coasts of Chile, especially in the north of the country, are suffering from an excessive extraction of brown macroalgae, essential ecosystems for the survival of our fishing resources, and we must work on a policy that allows sustainable extraction of the resource by fishermen and fisherwomen," said Astete.

Finally, the Director of Subelab, the Underwater Ecology Laboratory of the Pontificia UC, Alejandro Pérez-Matus, pointed out that they have carried out a series of investigations related to the impact of extraction on the recovery of kelp forests. In this line, he indicated that "the recovery of subtidal brown algae is slow and after more than 42 months of extraction we have noticed that in the management areas, the recovery and care rates of brown macroalgae forests are higher than in free areas, which is probably due to the fact that artisanal fishermen care about these spaces knowing the importance they have for their economic activity”.

Source: Sernapesca

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