Chile stretches along the southeast rim of the Pacific Ocean. The seas off South America’s southwestern coast are one of the five most productive and biodiverse marine areas on Earth. After 50 years of applying an orthodox neoliberal economic model, fishing and aquaculture comprise the second largest sector of the Chilean export economy, with an annual production of 3.4 million tonnes, valued at US $8.5 billion.

Chile ranks 12th among the world’s largest landers of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and marine invertebrates. It is also the world’s second largest producer of fishmeal, the fifth largest exporter of seaweed for human consumption, the leading exporter of mithilids (bivalve molluscs), and the second largest producer of industrially farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).