Fishing in Chile

Fishing in Chile is a major industry with a total catch of 4,442,877 tons of fish in 2006. As of 2010, Chile has the seventh largest commercial catch in the world. With over 4,000 km (2,500 miles) of viable coastline, fishing has been a vital resource for small-scale business and family development for hundreds of years. Due to the Humboldt Current, the Chilean Sea is considered among the most productive marine ecosystems in the world as well as the largest upwelling system. Artisan fishing is practised all over Chile's 6,435 km long coastline and combines industrial techniques with pre-Hispanic traditions. Recreational fishing tourism in southern Chile's rivers has recently gained worldwide fame attracting actors such as Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas, and Kevin Costner.

Fishing began in Chile with the introduction of salmon species into the country at the end of the 19th century — with great success since the salmon didn't encounter any large enemies or predators in Chile's cold and temperate waters. Subsequently the state, first as a social policy and then to promote aquaculture, played an active role in creating fish farms that released into rivers various species like rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout; and anadromous species such as silver salmon, king salmon, and Atlantic salmon. As a result, a number of species have adapted well to the new environment.

Following a period of brutal overfishing, Chile set up a quota system in 2001, which helped stocks stabilize. This quota system existed to distribute quotas of catch for both pescadores artesanales (traditional, artisanal fisherman) and the industrial fishing market. This quota applied both to where and when fishermen can go after their catch as well as what types of fish they can catch and how many in a given period. Although companies and coalitions of individuals are free to sell their quotas, they were originally allocated on the basis of the historical division of the catch among firms. That gave established operators, which got free quotas, an advantage over new entrants, which had to buy them from rivals. A series of mergers have put 91% of the total industrial quota for jack mackerel, sardines, pilchards and hake in the hands of just four companies. This law expired in 2012. It was replaced by the controversial Ley de Pesca or Ley Longueira whose passage has now been shown to have been influenced by bribes paid by Corpesca industrial fisheries to three politicians from the Iquique region.

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