Signs of recovery
During the First International Conference for the Salmon Industry organized by Novartis, the veterinarian and general manager of Aquabench, Joel Leal, presented several results from their benchmarking programme which represent around 91% of the Chilean salmon industry.
For example, he commented that 228 million smolts entered the sea last year, representing a 32 percent increase compared to the 172 million smolts of 2010. Likewise, the figure from 2010 was 28 percent higher than that of 2009. With a 64 percent increase (from 65 million to 107 million), Atlantic salmon was the species responsible for most of this increase in smolt sowings last year.
Meanwhile, the number of salmon eggs was once again over 1,000 million in 2011 -just like between the years 2006 and 2008, he explained.
Likewise, Joel Leal said that the number of farming sites in operation in January 2012 (248) is higher than that in the first month of the past 3 years. Most of these sites are located in the 11th Region (Aysén) with 167 sites in operation.
Regarding harvests, is remarkable that the total harvest of Atlantic salmon have been continuously increasing, although the average harvest weight in this specie has decreased from over 5Kg (January 2011) to around 4.5Kg (January 2012).
Finally, he commented that the abundance of sea lice has also been increasing over the past year as well as one specific disease for each salmonid species: Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis virus (IPNv) in Atlantic salmon, Coho salmon Icteric Syndrome in Coho salmon, and Piscirickettsia salmonis in Rainbow trout.
