Sernapesca blocks exports of Marine Harvest Chile

Christian Pérez Several officers of the National Service of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Sernapesca, recently visited the headquarters of Marine Harvest in Chile in connection with the FDA detection of crystal violet in one of 12 samples from one container with 16,743 Kg of product between 7.5 and 8.5 oz. After tracing the origin of the questioned fish, Sernapesca mapped out that the salmon in the detained container was farmed in the cages 101, 106, 203, 204, 206, 207, 208 and 201 belonging to the farming site Apiao. Likewise, Sernapesca established that those fish were processed in the Pesquera del Mar Antártico processing plant in Puerto Montt, which was inspected in July 2013 as part of a monthly quality assurance inspection programme. Sernapesca decided to block the exports of the remaining stocks of product in Marine Harvest Chile, while performs all the appropriate inspections and obtains the traceability of the questioned product in the freshwater stage, in order to confirm or refuse the usage of crystal violet. Likewise, Sernapesca has requested samplings to those fish feed used in the fattening stage of the questioned fish. According to Sernapesca, the Chilean regulation establishes that if a company is proven to have used forbidden drugs or chemicals in aquaculture it should pay a fine that ranges between US$ 40,000 and US$ 240,500.