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Published: August 7th 2007
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Hello dedicated readers!
Well, it looks like we've lost nearly all of our entries. Apparently we can somehow regain them if we click here and click there, but I´ll have to wait until I get home to sort that out. For now, I suppose I´ll continue on with our adventures from where we left off.
We are now in Punta Arenas, at the very southern tip of South America!!! Punta Arenas is actually as far south as you can go in mainland Chile. It´s also the furthest south you can go along the mainland in the entire world! We were pleasantly surprised to find that Punta Arenas is the most European city of Chile. It´s the first city in which we've seen brick homes and we've been spoiled with hot water and heated homes!
Before we tell you about our adventures down here though, we have to finish up with our stories from the North. Before leaving Chiloe to make our way down South, we stumbled upon an interesting veterinary experience. We were hiking along the highway just out of Chonchi one morning when we decided to get brave. We'd been wanting to visit a salmon farm ever
Emma examining embryos at Universidad Austral
These embryos are being checked for viability before they can be transferred to a recipient. since we arrived in Chile. Unfortunately, we hadn´t been able to make any veterinary contacts and we'd also heard about the tight security around some of these companies. Even so, we thought our Spanish was finally up to par and we might be able to talk our way in to one of the companies that we passed by along the road. I walked up to the security window, looking like the typical backpacker, and tried to explain to the 4 security guards that we were Canadian Veterinary students and that we were interested in learning about the salmon industry... all in Spanish! After a few puzzled looks, a couple of phone calls and after having handed over ALL of my picture ID's, we donned 'visitor'badges and were whisked off to meet with a veterinarian. Dr. Paulo Palacios is one of 4 veterinarians who works at 'Salmones Antartica SA'and was more than happy to sit down with us and talk to us about the salmon industry in Chile and the company itself. AND he spoke English! He had spent some time working in PEI at the Atlantic Veterinary College.
Salmon is the third biggest industry in Chile and the second
Me doing a Caslicks
This picture is from our time spent with Dr. Jorge Rubilar Bravo in Osorno. The surgery was actually much simpler than I thought! largest exporter of salmon, after Norway. The company itself is a Japanese company and we were warned that what we'd see was not typical of all Salmon Companies. This one was particularly high-tech and sterile. We couldn´t believe how lucky we were to have a full 2 hour tour of the processing plant! The salmon themselves are farmed in the ocean, about 2 hours off-shore. They're brought to this site just before processing, where they're held in temporary nets in the bay. When the fish are ready to be processed, they are 'vaccumed'up from the ocean, into the plant. There, the whole process of stunning, bleeding and fileting begins. The funniest part was having to don a full bleached white suit from head to toe, to ensure high sterility. We were all decked out in bonnets, headbands, baseball caps, face masks, labcoats, white rubber boots and plastic ponchos. We more more sterile than for surgery! It was amazing to see that people worked like that for 8 hours a day! I don´t know how you would recognize anyone. It was difficult to imagine having to work in this type of 'factory'environment, since most people had very repetitive jobs. One man
Rob palpating a mare
Rob searching hard for the ovary of a mare in Osorno. was responsible for arranging the packaged salmon along a conveyer belt, two at a time, so that they could freeze properly as they entered the freezer. I think that the 3 of us decided that we were pretty lucky to be working towards careers in veterinary medicine (even if we are still in school!).
We actually arrived to the salmon farm at a bad time. Dr. Palacios was just closing up the office to travel to Puerto Montt on the mainland where aquatic veterinarians were meeting to discuss a new outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anemia. Chile has never had a problem with the disease until now and historically it has only been found in Canada, Scotland and Norway. The virus causes severe anemia and mortality up to 100%! The vets are still scrambling to find out how the virus reached their farm, but it likely came from whaling boats and other infected salmon in the Atlantic. Since the virus spreads very readily, we can only imagine the devastation to the salmon industry if it spreads to the other salmon farms all along the Chilean coast. The veterinarians at Salmones Antartica actually spend very little time in the processing plant
Our friend 'Stumpy'
This dog is from Delcahue, Chiloe. The street vendors told us that he lost his front paw when he was hit by a car. We affectionately names him 'Stumpy'and we were happy to see that he seemed very happy and pain-free! themselves and are responsible for maintaining salmon health and humane treatment.
We weren´t able to take any pictures in the plant itself, but we have proof that we were there! '
Well, we'll have to fill you in on our work in Punta Arenas next time. And let's hope that these entries don´t get lost either.
We all hope you´re doing well and enjoyin the summer in North America.
Ciao!
Dominique, Rob and Emma
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