Researchers from the Universidad Católica del Norte have documented that marine farms in Los Choros, a rural town and coastal area, located 114 - 120 km north of La Serena, a popular tourist destination for dolphin, whale, and penguin watching, as well as visits to Isla Dama island, in the far north of Chile’s Coquimbo region, generate a refuge ecosystem that increase biodiversity under and between crops.
The place potentially fattens species such as tolina, which feeds on piures and where local artisanal fishermen are reinventing their trade by protecting the ecosystem.
The project has been thanks to a group of six fishermen who have been learning to grow oysters and piures in the same waters for a decade with other types of seafood, according to El Maipo, a media outlet for the Maipo territory and serving various municipalities in the region.
Marine farms integrate crops in the water column within Benthic Resources Management and Exploitation Areas (AMERBs) , marine spaces collectively managed by fishermen’s union.
Secretary of the fishermen’s guild of Los Choros, Gabriel Molina recounts how he and how he and his collegues installed lines with 100.000 oysters, learned to constantly monitor water conditions and to overcome difficulties of woodpecker larvae.
Today, its moth - eaten management area produces piures with faster growth than in enclosed bays, thanks to the rich Humboldt ocean current.
In a context of mining pressure and large projects on the coast, marine farms represent a tool to root communities in their territories, guarantee their cultural continuity and transform management areas into platforms for life and protection of the ecosystem beyond mere attraction.
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Thanks a lot to read and note.