Salmon Farming Tragedy: Diver’s Death in Melinka Raises Toll to 84 Aquaculture Workers

Original article: Industria salmonera letal: Muerte de buzo en Melinka eleva a 84 los trabajadores acuícolas fallecidos

Kickoff of the 2026 Aquaculture Season: Diver’s Death at Salmon Farm in Melinka

Images: Internet Archive. Deaths of Workers in the Salmon Industry

The death of a worker marks the grim beginning of yet another season of fatalities in Chile’s salmon export mega-industry for the year 2026, once again highlighting the precarious and substandard safety conditions that prevail in this lucrative sector. The rapid geographical and productive expansion of industrial salmon farming has now claimed the lives of 84 workers from 2013 to 2026.

The latest victim is Manuel Matus Tamayo, a diver who tragically passed away while performing underwater tasks under subcontract at the salmon farming facility “Martita,” located in the King Channel of the Aysén region. This facility is owned by Australis Mar S.A., a subsidiary of Chinese-backed Australis Seafoods, which is involved in the fattening and marketing of farmed salmon through aquaculture concessions in the regions of Aysén and Magallanes.

Following the fatal accident, maritime authorities initiated procedures from the ports of Melinka and Puerto Cisne to commence an administrative maritime investigation aimed at determining the causes and potential responsibilities associated with this latest workplace death in Aysén.

Aysén: One of the Highest Injury Rates in the Global Salmon Industry

The Aysén region is known for having one of the highest labor accident rates in the global salmon industry. During the 2025 season, the mega-salmon industry in Chile recorded, for the third consecutive year, a production exceeding one million tons annually, valued at more than 6 billion dollars.

This rapid production expansion in the Chilean Patagonia aims to double current salmon export production by 2040, a process that has faced widespread criticism not only for its severe environmental impacts but also for the serious lack of labor safety conditions, particularly affecting subcontracted divers, most of whom are artisanal fishermen.

Records from the Ecoceanos Center indicate that at least two divers died in the Aysén region during 2025, directly linked to salmon farming operations, and one in the Magallanes region.

On April 17, 2025, Luis Godoy Mendoza, an artisanal diver subcontracted by Aerocam, died while providing services for the mega-company Blumar S.A. at the “Elena Weste” fattening center, located in Aysén fjord, near Isla Elena, Puerto Chacabuco.

Subsequently, in July 2025, the death of another diver was reported at the farming center “Canalad,” owned by Australis Mar, in the commune of Cisnes, adjacent to Melinka port in the Aysén region.

Ecoceanos: When a Diver’s Life is Worth Less Than that of an Export Salmon

Records from the Ecoceanos Center confirm that between March 2013 and January 2026, there have been 84 worker fatalities in farming centers, industrial processing plants, and maritime transportation activities in Chilean waters associated with salmon farming.

Juan Carlos Cárdenas, the director of Ecoceanos Center, states that “this unacceptable situation in the country’s second most important economic activity illustrates the prevailing philosophy in Chile’s mega salmon producers, where these deaths are not inevitable accidents, but rather a direct result of an intensive production system that prioritizes—often with the complicity of state regulatory agents—billion-dollar profits over labor safety and human life.”

This harsh reality, warns Cárdenas, is poignantly expressed in the well-known Chilote saying: “A diver’s life is worth less than that of an export salmon.”

With information from: Ecoceanos News.