National commentator refuted for salmon industry misinformation
National commentator and well-known Chilean journalist Fernando Paulsen received a harsh criticism on behalf of Igor Solar, well-known marine biologist from the Universidad de Chile regarding Paulsen’s article in El Mostrador, strongly supporting what was published in the New York Times last month about Chile’s salmon industry. “Unfortunately Mr. Paulsen decided to intervene in a subject that he is apparently unfamiliar with. The main author of the article cited in the New York Times is not Dr. Felipe Cabello (who Paulsen refers to as a world eminence in microbiology), rather Antonia Fortt who represents the NGO Oceana, an organization that maintains a political campaign against the salmon industry,” states Solar in Aqua.cl. He adds that the New York Times article mentions the taxonomic name of Atlantic salmon as Oncorhynchus kisutch, which is in fact the name of the Pacific coho salmon. In addition the article goes on to mention that the virus affecting Chile’s salmon is the bacteria Vibrio ordali, which is impossible that a virus would be named after a bacteria. “I don’t blame Paulsen, he is not a biologist and his errors are understandable. But Antonia Fortt is an environmental engineer and Felipe Cabello a world eminent scientist,” adds Solar. “This leads me to believe that the authors did not review their information, the article was published without an external evaluation, or was prepared and evaluated by people who do not actually know about salmon, or the real situation in Chile.”
