– With financing from the Walmart Foundation, the organizations will develop a project in which algae will be grown in the salmon company’s farming centers, in order to understand how algae contribute to a better interaction between fish farming and the ecosystem.
– Algae are great capturers of inorganic nutrients and contribute to maintaining the quality of marine waters.
Puerto Montt, December 11, 2023. The interaction between salmon farming and the ecosystem is one of the great environmental challenges of the industry. In this context, alliances between the different actors in society are a fundamental way to generate solutions that point to an environmentally and economically viable future.
From this, Blumar joined The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Chile and the University of Los Lagos to develop an initiative that will seek to deliver economic benefits to communities and ecological benefits to the ecosystem, from the cultivation of algae associated with salmon farms.
The project, which is possible thanks to the generous financing provided by Walmart Foundation, consists of the development of a program to grow algae in Blumar’s cultivation centers, in order to investigate and demonstrate the capacity of these production systems and contribute to the development of multi-trophic aquaculture, by incorporating algae as an absorption and nutrient mechanism for salmon farming, seeking to improve the sustainability of the industry.
“Seaweed farming contributes to mitigating the impacts of salmon farming on water quality, improving the current health of Chile’s marine ecosystems, and in addition, seaweed aquaculture is an important economic activity in Chile that will benefit local coastal communities,” says the commercial manager of Salmones Blumar, Daniel Montoya. He also explains that “the cultivation of algae allows us to improve our interaction with the ecosystem, in addition to the habitat of a wide variety of coastal organisms.”
The project, which will last 24 months, will also seek to demonstrate the operational, environmental and economic viability of community algae cultivation through farms, as well as evaluate the viability of using algae aquaculture to improve the interaction between the ecosystem and the salmon farming industry.
Researchers from the i~mar Center of the University of Los Lagos, Dr. Carolina Camus Director of the Millennium Nucleus MASH and Dr. Alejandro Buschmann, CeBiB senior researcher, point out that “Interest in algae is showing an increase at a global level in different areas ranging from food to the production of products of high pharmaceutical value. For several years, the i~mar Center algae group has been looking for alternatives to encourage the development of algae cultivation as primary producers that offer benefits to coastal communities and at the same time evaluating the ecosystem services that they can provide to man.
For his part, Juan José Donoso, executive director of The Nature Conservancy Chile, states that “Working with the salmon industry in this way is expected to be a step towards improving environmental conditions in the waters where they operate. “This project has potential benefits for the environment and for the people who have lived for generations where salmon farms operate.”
