The body of a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) was spotted this week just a few meters from the "Huillines 3" Salmonid Fattening Centre, inside Laguna San Rafael National Park in the Estero Cupquelán estuary. The facilities, currently out of operation, are owned by the Canadian company Cooke Aquaculture and have been the subject of several administrative and legal controversies, which have even led to the stoppage in 2022 by order of Chile's Superintendence of the Environment (and ratified by the Environmental Court of Valdivia) of the farming of 170,000 salmon, due to its possible environmental effects.

 

One of the sightings was made on Tuesday by the crew of the nautical tourism company Kawésqar Patagonia, which runs tours from Exploradores Bay to Laguna San Rafael. The whale, that day about 600 meters from the salmon farming center, "was at the edge of the coast, we approached to appreciate it to see it more clearly, we were able to identify that it was a specimen of a humpback whale, about 12 to 13 meters," said Yimmy Avendaño. From what we could see, "it was already quite swollen, which means it had been dead for several days, we are talking about three or four, according to what we talked about with our colleagues."

 

At that point, "the smell was quite strong, so we couldn't get much closer,” explained the guide.

 

For her part, Carla Zúniga, from another nautical tourism company, explained that on Monday around 2:30 p.m., returning from a tour of the lagoon, "we approached to see a white lump that we had seen in the morning in the same sector. It was a dead whale, apparently a humpback about 11 meters long. It was already swollen and had some wounds, it was a very sad situation,” she said. On that day, the body of the whale was just a few meters from the buoys of the salmon farm in question. 

 

In the previous days, ‘blows’ had been observed on the surface in that area, which is the way in which a whale comes out of the water to expel condensed vapour to breathe. "A few weeks ago we saw the blowing of a whale close to this area,” says Zuniga. At the moment it is not clear whether or not it is the same whale that has been swimming around the area for weeks.

 

A complaint has already been filed with the National Fisheries Service (Sernapesca) via email, and it is hoped that an autopsy can be performed in order to clearly establish the cause of death of the whale, ruling out or confirming the impact that contamination present in the area, mainly from plastics and microplastics, may have had.

 

Currently the Salmonid Fattening Centre "Huillines 3" is without personnel and practically abandoned, with only the buoys and some walkways. Until Wednesday of last week, at least, there was a Cooke Aquaculture pontoon on the site, inside which, as far as could be ascertained, there were containers labelled as deposits of chemical elements, and dangerous, toxic and corrosive substances. 

 

Witnesses reported that by the time the dead whale was sighted this week, the specific container had been removed from the site.

 

 

 

This event is in addition to another similar event that also occurred in recent days in the Kawésqar National Reserve, in Magallanes, where Sernapesca was notified about the discovery of a humpback whale ‘presumably entangled’ and dead at a farming center of the Puerto Varas, Chile-based company Australis Mar, located in Seno Glacier. As a result, the fishing service authorities referred the matter to the Regional Prosecutor's Office, because although ‘the company informed us about what happened, it is crucial to investigate how it happened and take the necessary measures for the proper removal of the whale from the breeding center,” said Ximena Gallardo, director of Sernapesca Magallanes.

 

Situations like this are what have alerted regional, national and international organizations, and have led them to demand the removal of salmon farming centers from protected areas, without relocation, under the umbrella of the "Save Patagonia" campaign of the Alliance for the Defence of Protected Areas, which brings together more than 40 organizations from all over the world.