The third edition of the Latin American Summit for Fisheries and Aquaculture Sustainability was held in the city of Puerto Varas, Los Lagos region, Chile, from October 12 to 14, with the slogan “One mission, one region: Fishing with a future”. The event was organized by the Mexican Council for the Promotion of Fisheries and Aquaculture Products (Comepesca) and the National Fisheries Society of Chile (Sonapesca), with the aim of addressing the importance of sustainability, innovation and food security in the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
The event, which was held in a hybrid form (face-to-face and online), brought together experts to share experiences, information and action plans, future commitments and projects, in order to move forward to grow and consolidate the movement of sustainable seafood and fisheries in the region.
“We are confident that the shared problems can lead to the creation of solutions and action plans among all the actors involved,” said Comepesca.
The Chile Summit was “the ideal space to bring together the fishing and aquaculture sectors, certification bodies, NGOs, governments and other actors related to this activity in Latin America, in order to make alliances and promote fair and equitable development towards sustainability”, according to Citlali Gómez, president of Comepesca and founder of the Pesca Con Futuro movement.
The experts’ impulse
Indeed, the Summit Chile 2022 once again brought together various experts on issues related to fisheries and aquaculture to share experiences and knowledge that will help and encourage the development of projects, action plans, and generate commitments, in order to advance and co-create a “Fishing with Future” for all inhabitants.
The program included presentations by María José Espinosa, COBI director of Community and Biodiversity, ‘Innovation and technology in fisheries’; Valentina Tapia, director of Aker BioMarine Latin America, ‘Innovation and technology in aquaculture’; Lula Martín del Campo, ambassador of the women’s collective “Pesca con Futuro” and chef of the Mexican restaurant Cascabel, ‘Cooks allied to promote responsible consumption’.
Also noteworthy were the conferences by Antonio Garza de Yta, Aquaculture consultant in the Sultanate of Oman and president of Aquaculture Without Frontiers (AWF), “Experience in aquaculture”; Juan Pedro Pinochet, executive president of Gestión Social, “Communities and territorial management”; Paulo Rojas, from the Corporation for the Promotion of Seafood Consumption (ProPescado), “Communities and territorial management”; and Mauricio Orellana, from Orca Seafoods, “Direct marketing and exchange of experience in artisanal fishing”.
Creation and consolidation of a model
According to the organizers, the previous versions of the Summit held in Mexico, in 2019, and Peru, in 2020, stood out for being an instance of meeting between small-scale fishermen, industrialists, fish farmers, aquaculture food producers, governments, international fisheries management organizations, supermarkets, distributors of fishery and aquaculture products, hotels, restaurants and civil society organizations to share experiences, work on future action plans, commitments and challenges to advance in the creation and consolidation of a model to promote the sustainable production of seafood products in Latin America.
“This is a new opportunity to join efforts and practice fishing with a future, which allows maintaining the health of species, the balance of aquatic populations and ensure the availability of seafood and inland waters for future generations,” said Citlali Gomez, regarding this third Latin American Summit for Fisheries and Aquaculture Sustainability.
For his part, Osciel Velásquez, president of Sonapesca, the largest fishing union in Chile, said that “for several years we have been working on a sustainable agenda for the development of fishing and aquaculture, not only in Chile but also in Latin America, and that is why it is important to show the delegations that will come, the authorities and civil society, all the work we are developing with this new Chilean fishing, which is more sustainable, technological and nutritious.”
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