The market competition in net fouling
For Atared, the Association of Net Cleaning and Maintenance Workers for the salmon industry, the job of taking out fouled nets, cleaning them in their land based facilities and reinstalling them for the salmon farmers is big business. According to the Association’s latest bulletin published in Aqua.cl they presented their business market numbers, which revealed the magnitude of their work. In the year 2006 when salmon production was close to reaching its peak in Chile, the amount of netting in use for sea cages equaled a surface area of 80,000,000 m2. The amount of fouling generated from these nets totaled 170,000 m3. Atared was responsible for the cleaning of 52,000,000 m2 of that surface area.
The Association made an effort to express to the media their concern regarding a recent change in legislation that will allow for the cleaning of certain nets “in situ” (those nets that are not impregnated with antifouling paint), which in their opinion poses a sanitary risk. Atared based their argument on a study realized by the Fundación Chile in 2003, indicating that the only manner to effectively eliminate certain pathogens in nets used at sea is with fresh water. Also, they argue that “in situ” cleaning methods result in the contamination of the sea floor with fouling. What is seen between the lines however is Atared’s concern over losing a small percentage of its market share from new companies providing the service of “in situ” cleaning. This year new companies providing efficient, non-contaminating “in situ” cleaning services for a lower cost than traditional net cleaning services did in fact take some clients away from Atared, which, with the drop in salmon production projected for 2009, the Association is most concerned with simply staying in business.
