Time for solutions from Minister's salmon group

"The fundamental purpose of this group is to evaluate not only the sanitary issues but also to analyze the range of existing conditions that will allow for a sustainable development of the [salmon] industry. This is and industry that has experienced a remarkable development, in which it doubled its production within five years. But consequently, we think that the problems present today have something to do with this explosive growth," comments Economic Minister Hugo Lavados, in his conversation with el Llanquihue. His "salmon round table" is led by ex-Undersecretary of Fisheries Felipe Sandoval, who was well respected by the salmon industry during his rule under President Ricardo Lagos. Although the work entailed for the round table is ongoing, so far the solutions proposed are the following: 1. Modify the environmental regulations specific to aquaculture in order to establish stricter environmental and sanitary conditions for aquaculture activities, including the sanitary standards for the importation of eggs. 2. Allow for the transfer of farming licenses by prioritizing the completion of the license transfer processes underway, and maintaining an administrative capacity to process from 80 to 100 license transfer solicitations per month. 3. Establish incentives for the development of integrated management plans by groupings of licenses, and design an environmental and sanitary management plan that is technically founded and includes periodic audits by governmental managing authorities. 4. Strengthen control measures of governmental institutions, to better regulate salmon farming activity, and better supervision of information transfer from and towards the industry. Determine the biological carrying capacity of salmon farming areas.