Record-breaking shellfish and algae harvests
According to statistics provided up until May of this year by the Undersecretary of Fisheries, the shellfish harvests account for 34% of the country’s entire fisheries harvest. The principal species harvested was the Chilean blue mussel (Mytilus chilensis), totalling 146.5 thousand tons. 99.9% of this total was harvested from Chile’s X Region. The remaining fraction of the shellfish harvest goes to the northern scallop, (Agropecten purpuratus), also known as the Peruvian scallop, which totalled 5.9 thousand tons - 1.9% higher than last year’s harvests. 96% of northern scallop harvests come from Regions III and IV. As for the algae, they respresent 2.7% of the entire fisheries harvest, and reached a total of 12 thousand tons - which is 18% higher than last year. The principal algae species is the Chilean selly weed (Gracilaria sp.), which is used primarily for the production of agar and as a supplemental food source for farmed abalone.
