Los Lagos

Los Lagos exists because salmon need cold water—and cold water is running out. The region's Chiloé province hosts Chile's aquaculture miracle: 958,507 tonnes harvested in 2024 (65.4% of national production), generating $6.47 billion in 2023 exports and 40,000+ direct jobs. The cool Humboldt currents made it ideal for salmonids, and the industry colonized these fjords from the 1970s onward. But biological systems have limits. Sea lice, algae blooms, and antibiotic-resistant diseases now plague the overcrowded waters. The industry's response follows the classic colonization pattern: when environmental problems explode, move south. Los Lagos farms are increasingly being abandoned as producers shift toward pristine Magallanes waters, leaving behind the ecological and social damage of intensive aquaculture. National Geographic documentaries question whether farming should continue at all. The Yelcho Project represents a desperate attempt to reduce antibiotic use—a public-private effort that acknowledges the industry's own waste threatens its future. AquaSur 2024, hosted in Puerto Montt, drew 350 companies from 30 countries to discuss solutions for an industry that built Los Lagos but may be destroying it. By 2026, salmon farming will either achieve sustainability through projects like Yelcho or continue its southward flight, leaving Los Lagos as a monument to extraction that consumed its own habitat.