264 EIGHTH PACIFIC SCIENCE CONGRESS 



suitable for oil production. It appears that good possibilities exist for 

 expansion of fish meal production both from wastes and from direct 

 fishing. Nevertheless, the profitability of fish meal production in Chile 

 by direct fishing remains to be seen. Cattle and poultry raising use 

 almost all the domestic production of fish meal. 



Fish oil: 



Production of industrial fish oils in Chile is still very limited. Not 

 more than 100 metric tons are estimated to be produced annually. How- 

 ever, this output is subject to increase as oil extraction proceeds in the 

 fish meal plants already in operation and the new ones under construc- 

 tion. 



Vitamined oils: 



Assays of samples of fish liver from Chilean waters indicate that 

 rich sources of vitamin "A" are available. Reported 1951 production, 

 chiefly of low potency oils, was about 29,700 liters. Present output is in 

 the neighborhood of 120 billion International Units, derived from about 

 275 tons of liver. Different species of shark and also tuna supplied the 

 raw material. 



7. Fresh Water Fish 



The indigenous fish fauna of Chilean lakes and rivers is exception- 

 ally poor, particularly regarding edible species. The once abundant 

 smelt (pejerry — Basilichthys microlepidoliis), native trout (trucha 

 crioW-ci — Per cichthys trucha), and catfish (bagre de agus dnlce — Nema- 

 togenys inermis), as well as the small farionelas or peladillas {Haplochi- 

 ton spp.), were overfished in the measure that human settlements ex- 

 panded, with the result that, at present, these species are on the verge 

 of extinction. 



Since 1905, the fisheries administration implemented an ambitious 

 programme of restocking Chilean fresh waters with species such as the 

 European salmon and trouts, the North American rainbow and steel 

 head trouts and the Alaskan salmon. These activities were continued 

 for a number of years and, with the exception of the European and 

 the North American salmons which acclimatization apparently failed, 

 the other species v/ere successfully established. In more recent years 

 this planting with foreign species was expanded to new areas and other 

 species, such as the valuable Argentinean smelt (Odonthestes bonar- 

 iensis), were introduced. It is interesting to report that all these ac- 

 climatized species grow in Chilean waters to a larger size than in the 

 original countries. However, the utilization of these stocks is mainly 

 for sportive purposes. 



