Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores how the expansion of the salmon industry in Chilean Patagonia affects spaces, communities, and individual bodies, and how local divers persist under pressure from salmon farm advocates, the Chilean government, the sea, and the environment.

Paper Abstract:

Currently, Patagonia is highly valued as an area of pristine nature and unique biodiversity. However, powerful stakeholders dispute this territory in order to exploit its natural resources. One example is the salmon industry, which has expanded in Patagonia at an accelerated rate over the past three decades. This development has been facilitated by the Chilean state through pro-market laws and low environmental regulation, on the one hand, and Patagonia's large size and isolation, on the other. Indigenous and Chilean communities in Patagonia, as well as members of the scientific community, have denounced the social and environmental consequences of the salmon industry on local life. My paper follows the case of salmon farm divers in Los Lagos, northern Patagonia. The divers take care of the fish and maintain the cages that compose the farms. Diving several times a day and exceeding the recommended limits by international standards, the divers are exposed to high risk of accidents and in many cases their bodies suffer irreversible changes. The salmon industry in Patagonia illustrates some of the most dramatic contradictions of the expansion of capitalism. In this paper, I explore how the processes of ruination of the salmon industry permeate spaces, communities, and individual bodies, and how local organizations persist under pressure - from salmon farm advocates, the environment, and the Chilean government - to maintain and improve their way of life.