More than 50 representatives of fishery management committees, scientific committees, salmon farmers, mussel farmers, artisanal fisheries and small-scale aquaculture, as well as public services from the sector participated in a seminar organized by the Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture to make the sector aware of the effects and measures of adaptation to climate change in the sector.
Chile is the first country in Latin America that has an Adaptation Plan for Climate Change in Fisheries and Aquaculture and this activity is part of its performance. Therefore, the event, held in Valparaíso, had national experts in the field, who, from their specificities, were responsible for raising awareness and providing tools to attendees, so that they can incorporate this variable into the decisions they make in their different areas.
Fisheries and Aquaculture (SUBPESCA) Undersecretary Eduardo Riquelme said he was very pleased about the results of this seminar organized to “concretely address the way in which this climate change phenomenon is linked to the decisions that the public administration, and fundamentally the Undersecretary of Fisheries, should take on fisheries and aquaculture.”
The program included the head of research of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Aquaculture Research, Doris Soto, who presented some projections of the sector.
“The predictions in the area forecast, for the middle of the century, in the best of cases, a reduction of the fishing potential between 2 per cent and 5 per cent; while, in the most dramatic scenario, it will decrease by 7 per cent and 12 per cent,” said the researcher.
In relation to aquaculture, he explained that the impact is inferior, since there is greater control and the phenomena can cause negative and positive effects in “the increase in sea temperature may mean greater growth for some species, but the increase in acidification of the oceans can hinder the production of mollusks or crustaceans.”
For his part, Luis Cubillos, a researcher at the University of Concepcion, stressed the importance of implementing adaptation plans in fisheries and aquaculture, over mitigation, as well as including them in an ecosystem approach, since it is an activity of the many communities depending on it, so diversification and adaptation is vital for their sustainability.
Luis Parot, executive director of the Institute of Fisheries Development (IFOP), said that “at the same time and complementary to the initiatives of the Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture, the Department of Oceanography and Environment (Doma) of IFOP is developing a project, in agreement with FAO, called “Interoperable Information System (SDII).” This project systematizes and integrates data on fisheries, aquaculture and climate change, to generate information for users and decision-making, through a web platform.
In this sense, DOMA head Dr. Jaime Letelier highlighted the efforts that are being carried out to enable free access to systematized and comprehensible environmental information, as well as the design of public contingency and fisheries management policies, which favour the scientific progress in understanding the effects of climate change.
1995 – 2018 Fish Info & Services Co.Ltd