Good news for the Gluteus maximus bad news for Salmo salar

Mario, the guy that owns the hostel I’m staying at, informs me that the recent volcanic eruption in Chaiten means there is an exclusion zone of a radius of 70km round it. This means I will be taking a luxurious 300 mile cruse to Puerto Chacabuco. Well I don’t know about luxurious but it’s going to be better than the bike. Mario also informs me that salmon fish farms here have the ISA virus and he reckons it European borne. This is the same virus that Scottish farms were plagued with a few years back. The Chilean government have only just started issuing rules on fishing industry and the virus as been known about for a long time, years in fact. Needless to say this is starting to affect the economy here in Puerto Montt. Did you know that Salmon aren’t even native here?

Comments

Anonymous said…
i assume they are atlantic salmon not the native pacific.

do salmon run the river in chile
Lee O'Connor said…
i read that salmon were introduced in the early 1900s. in the 80s industrial salmon aquaculture began. so not sure if any species are native. i remmber the lonely piper telling me that scottish brown trout were introduced to the rivers here as well . need to check.