At the end of the world, at the southernmost tip of South America, between Chile and Argentina, lies the Beagle Channel, a true natural wonder. The strait is characterised by unspoilt fjords and a great variety of wildlife, including imperial cormorants, penguins, sea lions, dolphins, whales, albatrosses and petrels. This wild paradise was at risk of being severely compromised by the construction of a large salmon farm. Thanks to the resistance of local communities and the opposition of scientific institutions and environmental organisations, this threat has finally been averted.

An ecological bomb defused

Nova Austral, a Chilean company that farms and trades salmon, had intended to raise 1.9 million fish in 18 cages in the strait, in what would have been the first salmon farm in the Beagle Channel. This type of farming has a high environmental impact, capable of threatening native wildlife, marine ecosystems and human health. These are intensive operations in which thousands of fish are crammed into small underwater enclosures just a few tens of metres in diameter.

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The true cost of salmon

Conditions in these farms are appalling and the salmon mortality rate is extremely high, due to disease, parasites and water pollution. To keep the animals alive until slaughter, huge quantities of antibiotics are used. In Chile, according to Greenpeace, farmed salmon are given up to 700 times more antibiotics than salmon produced in Norway by the same companies. These farms are highly polluting: they produce large quantities of waste that pose a threat to the entire fjord ecosystem.

As if that were not enough, they also endanger the survival of native wild salmon species. The farmed salmon is in fact an "artificial" salmon, the product of hybridisation, much like the chicken. If a significant number of these animals were to escape (after all, only a net separates them from the open sea), they could cause irreversible genetic pollution, leading to the disappearance of wild salmon and ruining small-scale fishermen.

A historic victory for Chile

Nova Austral had already installed the enclosures intended for salmon farming, but on 18 April last year the Chilean government ordered the company to halt operations pending further investigations. The measure followed an appeal lodged with a court by Greenpeace and residents of Puerto Williams, a port town overlooking the Beagle Channel. In the meantime, the farming concessions purchased by Nova Austral expired, and on 11 August last year the company began removing the cages, to the delight of local inhabitants.

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"For the first time in the history of Chile, a local community has obtained justice and forced a multinational salmon farming company to dismantle its illegal and polluting structures and leave the waters of the Beagle Channel," wrote an activist from the protest group No salmoneras en el Canal Beagle on Facebook. "Goodbye Nova Austral."

The Yamana celebrate

The affair has highlighted the lack of adequate regulation for the aquaculture sector and could bring about a broader transformation of the industry in Chile, the world's second-largest producer of farmed salmon after Norway. "This is a pivotal moment for us because it could lead to a review of all the other concessions in Patagonia," Estefanía González, oceans campaign coordinator for Greenpeace in Chile, told the Guardian. "The authorities could have reviewed these licences many years ago. The only reason they are doing so now is the enormous social pressure that has built up in Chile." The news of the dismantling of the farm in the Beagle Channel was greeted with joy by the Yamana, an ancient aboriginal people who have lived for millennia on the remote southern tip of South America and who strongly opposed the salmon farms.