The Privatization of Chile's Sea
January 18, 2013
The Privatization of Chile's Sea
Many small-scale fishermen say new fishing law could spell the end of their livelihood
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Transcript
Voiceover: A series of protests have erupted across Chile over the past year regarding a law that will impact the country’s fishing industry. Proponents say the law is needed in order to protect depleted fish reserves and ensure the sustainability of the industry, but opponents say the law seeks to privatize the Chilean sea and its resources to the benefit of 7 powerful families that control a handful of large fishing businesses.
David Dougherty, Valparaiso, Chile: Many small-scale fishermen in Chile say that a way of life is at stake with the new fishing law. Fishermen in coastal towns and cities across Chile, like here in Valparaiso, are raising fundamental questions about whether the Chilean sea and its fish should be considered private property.
Gabriel Valenzuela Andaur, President, Caleta Membrillo Fishermen’s Union, Valparaiso: As small scale fishermen, artisanal fishermen, we don’t really approve of this new law, it’s going to be more of the same law, which has treated us very poorly…(why, how has it treated you bad, what has been the impact)…because it has enabled the large fishing businesses, they are destructive pillagers, they’ve damaged the ocean floor, they haven’t let the species regroup and reproduce and this has resulted in the collapse of fishing resources.
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Voiceover: Chile’s current Minister of Economy Pablo Longueira, a founding member of the rightwing Independent Democratic Union party presented the law, which opponents have named the Longueira Law. Longueira is one of a number of current members of President Sebastian Piñera’s administration who were early supporters of and later collaborators with General Augusto Pinochet, who ruled the country under a military dictatorship after grabbing power in a US-backed coup in 1973 that ousted democratically elected leftwing president Salvador Allende. Longueira and other officials pushing for the law, which essentially seeks to consolidate and expand a shorter-term law approved in 2002, say the measures are necessary in order to ensure the sustainability of the fishing industry, which has faced severely diminishing yields in recent years due to overfishing.
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