Lobby salmonero in the Salmón Summit 2025, an important industry summit recently held in Frutillar, Chile, served as the setting for the first Chilean presidential debate.
During this meeting, the three main candidates in the electoral race hinted at the strong influence of the lobby salmonero in national politics, which has raised concerns about possible modifications to key laws in both countries.
A clear example of this influence is the intention to modify the Lafkenche Law in Chile without consulting indigenous peoples, which represents an advance for the industry and a setback for indigenous rights.
Similarly, in Argentina, the lobby salmonero has also demonstrated its power, and there are already political intentions to modify the law that prohibits salmon farming in Tierra del Fuego.
The salmonero lobby in Patagonia
Currently, the growth of the salmon industry in Chile depends on its geographical expansion to the Magallanes region.
This is due to the diseases (viral, bacterial, and parasitic fish diseases) that the industry itself introduced in the regions of Los Lagos and Aysén, which have led to a situation of sanitary and environmental collapse, with high associated costs.
This situation has forced the industry to seek new healthy environments to operate, as indicated in the AIDA report on the risks of salmon industry expansion in Patagonia.
Leticia Caro, from the Kawésqar Nomadic Family Groups of the Sea Community, emphasized her concern: “When we look at the overall picture of the advance of an industry with no oversight, which modifies its figures right and left, benefits from the little existing legislation, and now seeks to overthrow indigenous rights, it seems to me a serious lack of respect for the multiple indigenous communities.
By means of threats and without even having appropriate environmental studies, it is advancing towards the enrichment of a few, without considering the consequences of a severely polluting industry.”
Impact on Chile’s protected natural areas
The Magallanes region is home to the largest number of protected natural areas in Chile. Its glaciers, lakes, rivers, and seas, fed by permanent snow, make up unique landscapes that protect a variety of protected species, such as the blue whale, sperm whale, Magellanic penguin, elephant seal, leatherback turtle, southern right whale, and Chilean dolphin, among others.
According to the AIDA report, more than half of the concessions currently operating in Magallanes have generated environmental conditions that do not allow aquatic life. “In all subsectors where there are effective productive operations, there are centers operating under anaerobic conditions,” the report highlights.
From Argentina, Antonela Guevara, the first lawyer of the Selk’nam people of Tierra del Fuego and a local community leader, pointed out: “There is a very intense salmonero lobby presenting salmon farming as salvation, when it is proven that it is an industry that destroys nature and also affects many other local industries. There are interest groups that install confusing discourses in local media and want to influence the commission.”
What is happening with Law 1355 in Argentina?
In June 2021, the legislature of Tierra del Fuego unanimously approved the bill that prohibits salmon farming in Tierra del Fuego.
This activity not only threatens the environment, but also the health and economy of the province. The approval of this law put Argentina in the spotlight worldwide, positioning it as the first country to make such a significant decision regarding environmental protection.
Adrian Schiavini, a scientist at CONICET, professor at the National University of Tierra del Fuego, and researcher at the Wildlife Conservation Society, argues that “this proposal to modify the law seems like a new attempt to advance with a polluting productive model that has already left dead zones in Chile and seeks new places to continue producing salmon in our waters, an expensive product that does not solve hunger because it is for a few and with little job creation.”
In this regard, facing the salmonero lobby, anthropologist and CONICET researcher Ernesto Piana concluded: “the current law is the result of over three years of work. In the legislators’ research, they called on scientists, NGOs, producers, fishermen, the community in general, they inquired abroad.
There was a very extensive investigation and in parallel, there was a binational movement, together with Chile. If in ’78 we almost went to war, the rejection of salmon farms and the protection of the waters of Tierra del Fuego found us united.”
