40 MARCH 2017 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG existence of cultivation studies, few have address real conditions at productive scale, being a limiting factor to consolidate solid strategies at commercial scale. For brown seaweeds, the focus has been placed on restoration of kelp beds (Lessonia berteroana and M. pyrifera) using holdfast fragmentation techniques (Westermeier et al. 2014, 2016), and developing pilotscale suspended systems for the giant kelp M. pyrifera (Camus et al. 2016a). In particular, open-ocean cultivation of giant kelp in Chile started with experimental systems composed of few 100 m lines, seeded with free-floating plants or rope-seeded plants in the north and south of the country, reaching between 14 and 66 kg/m (Westermeier et al. 2006, 2011, Gutierrez et al. 2006, Correa et al. 2016, Macchiavello et al. 2010). Those experiences and knowledge were integrated and finally pre-commercial sea farming of the species was developed and demonstrated in a 3-year production cycle on 21 ha located near Chiloé island, southern Chile, with productivities up to 124 wet t/ha per mo (Fig. 1a) (Camus et al. 2016a). Also, the production of juvenile sporophytes was optimized to fulfill requirements of the pre-commercial scale (Fig. 1b) (Camus and Buschmann 2017). In contrast to most Asian and European countries, Chile harvests economically important seaweeds from natural beds, reaching 400 to 500 thousand t annually (Fig. 2). From the 14 species recorded in the 2014 statistical yearbook (Sernapesca 2014), 71.4 percent belong to Rhodophyta, 28.6 percent to Phaeophyceae, and none to Chlorophyceae (Fig. 2). Most are dried, packaged and exported to China, Japan, Norway, France (brown seaweeds) and to Canada, France, Denmark, Taiwan (red seaweed). A small portion (8.5 percent) of red and brown seaweed are processed in the country Chile is a privileged country from the point of view of fishing and aquaculture, with 4200 km of coastline, a maritime area of 3.15 million km2 and an exclusive economic zone extending 200 nautical miles from shore. This coastal zone includes highly productive ecosystems that provide advantages for valued and highdemand fisheries and aquaculture products in global markets. Chile is the ninth largest global fish producer (FAO 2016), with aquaculture of enormous importance by export value, particularly salmon and trout, although it generates a smaller percentage of the total volume produced. Presently, Chilean aquaculture production concentrates on several salmon species, but also mollusks such as mussels Mytilus chilensis, scallops Agropecten purpuratus, Pacific oysters Crassostrea gigas, and in lower quantities abalone Haliotis rufensens and Chilean oyster Ostrea chilensis are also farmed. In the case of seaweeds, the situation is different, the Rhodophycean seaweed “pelillo” (Gracilaria chilensis) is cultivated with a harvest of 12,808 t in 2014 (Sernapesca 2014), representing virtually all aquaculture production of seaweeds in Chile. The remainder of cultivated species correspond to “huiro” (Macrocystis pyrifera) in the Atacama region (2 t) (Sernapesca 2014). This situation is progressively changing, and cultivation in the open ocean of several species is being developed at different scales. For red seaweeds, deployment of juvenile plants on longlines has been demonstrated for Gigartina skottsbergii (Romo et al. 2006, Westermeier et al. 2012, Buschmann et al. 1999, 2001), Sarcothalia crispata (Avila et al. 1999, Romo et al. 2001), Callophyllis variegata (Hernández-González et al. 2010, Avila et al. 2014), and Chondracanthus chamissoi (Bulboa et al. 2005, Bulboa and Macchiavello 2006), demonstrating the feasibility of sea farming of some of the most economically important red seaweeds of the country. However, despite the Aquaculture in Chile: What About Seaweeds? Carolina Camus and Alejandro H. Buschmann FIGURE 1. Macrocystis pyrifera aquafarming at pre-commercial scale. a) 21-ha culture system, b) closeup of M. pyrifera sporophytes, c) Hatchery producing M. pyrifera plantlets using rope-seeded technique, d) close-up of a seeded rope with several < 1-mm sporophytes.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjExNDY=