50 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



Vol. 28. No. 11 



Chile (Contd.): 



Fig. 3 - Fishennan of Southern Chile selling his catch directly 

 from his boat at low tide. (Photo by S. Larrain) 



coast of Latin America --in Chile, Peru, and 

 Ecuador --one -fifth of the people's total ani- 

 mal protein consumption comes from fish. In 

 Ecuador, 40 percent more than the present 

 meat production would be necessary to re- 

 place fish consumption- -and this is consider- 

 ed far too little. Preserving and shipping fish 

 for human food from the one region in west- 

 ern Latin America with a great supply can 

 have important long-range effects. 



Long Haul May Bring Disaster 



Apart from shellfish, the sea in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of Puerto Montt is especial- 

 ly rich in hake. This species may weigh 

 as much as 10 or 15 pounds each, and may 

 sell for as little as 5 cents per fish. Yet when 

 the fish has changed hands once or twice, and 

 is no longer fresh, it may cost as much as 50 

 cents. If it ever gets to a market as far away 

 as Santiago, its price is "sky-high." Two 



years ago, during Holy Week, the cooperative 

 sent railway cars loaded with fish 600 miles 

 up to Santiago, but lost the whole shipment 

 when the cars were shunted to a siding and 

 arrived 3 weeks late. Generally, the cooper- 

 ative manages to get 150 to 180 boxes of fish 

 into Santiago 3 times a week in trucks. 



Much the same situation prevails with the 

 shellfish, which are plentiful in the Puerto 

 Montt region. Shellfish may live out of water 

 for some time, preferably on beaches washed 

 regularly by tides. But they die in fresh wa- 

 ter. They must be kept cool, and so salt-wa- 

 ter ice should be used when packing to mini- 

 mize losses. Without the necessary plant, 

 this is impossible --because the shellfish have 

 to be packed tightly in boxes and rushed to 

 markets hundreds of miles away in the hope 

 that they will survive. So, in Santiago, a doz- 

 en shellfish on a plate cost as much as an en- 

 tire box weighing 10 or 15 pounds in Puerto 

 Montt. The causes of the bottleneck are al- 

 ways the same: lack of facilities for drying 

 and icing, or lack of transportation, and often 

 both. 



Puerto Monti's Cooperative 



The cooperative in Puerto Montt is fairly 

 well equipped with boats. It has 70 small 

 ones, mostly rowboats, and 11 larger craft 

 with 8.5 horsepower engines. It also rents a 

 30-gross-ton privately-ownedboat, and 5 more 

 of 15 to 18 gross tons. It is already doing 

 quite well, though it could do much better. 

 The Government finances a quarter of the 

 housing, and in a few years the cooperative 

 expects to erect a large new school. Although 

 no school exists as yet, only 8 percent of the 

 families are illiterate. 



The cooperatives receive other material 

 advantages from the Government. They pay 

 only half of the regular export tax, and they 

 are allowed to import foreign equipment, es- 

 pecially machinery, free of duty. Loans n:ay 

 also be obtained from the Corporacion de 

 Fomento de la Produccion, but these are gen- 

 erally used to buy foreign equipment and have 

 to be repaid in dollars. Average earnings per 

 member within the cooperative come to about 

 $30 a month. It is a relatively small wage, 

 but with cheap housing and plenty to eat --in- 

 cluding all the fish they can use --the families 

 live fairly well. United Nations officials have 

 learned that a good way to contact the fisher- 

 men is through their cooperative. 



