Pablo Galilea, vice-minister of fishing, expressed the opinion that everybody wins with the new law; the environment, the fishermen, fisheries resources, small and medium enterprises, and the Chilean people.
"Chile is one of the top ten world powers in fisheries and aquaculture," he said. "From the South of the American continent we export seafood to over 100 destinations. We are leaders in trout farming and the second largest producer of salmon in the world."
The country has completely overhauled its salmon production model since 2010. Galilea said the new law is meant to assure stability and sustainability to the sector: "We aim to provide a range of high quality seafood products to European and emerging markets, with sustainable fisheries and aquaculture production at its core."
The new law covers sustainability, research, industrial fishing, inspection and small-scale fisheries. It incorporates criteria agreed by major environmental organizations including Greenpeace, Oceana and the World Wildlife Fund. These include adopting international standards of sustainable management, appointment of technical scientific committees to ooversee them, and putting scientific advice ahead of political and commercial considerations in decision making.
