In Mehuín, innovative mussel and shoe mussel seed collectors were installed

In Mehuín, in the Puente Negro sector, academics, public officials and local fishermen celebrated the installation of innovative collectors to capture mytilid seeds

Lorenzo Palma, Science in Chile.- Researchers from the Universidad Austral de Chile, concerned with contributing to the development of aquaculture in the Los Ríos region and supported by the Innovation Fund for Regional Competitiveness (FlC-R), and its Regional Council, are executing the Innovation project in Small-Scale Mytilid Aquaculture in the Los Ríos Region, which hopes to open up new development possibilities for the area of ​​small-scale aquaculture.

This work, which makes scientific knowledge available, is directed by Dr. Jorge Toro Yagui, an academic from the Institute of Marine and Limnological Sciences (ICML), who explains that the fact of installing the collector in the town of Mehuín This is possible, since the Regional Government, through FIC funds, previously supported the oceanographic baseline study in relation to the woolly shoe species (Choromytilus chorus) and mussel (Mytilus chilensis).

For the head of the promotion and industries division of the Regional Government, Miguel Ángel Martínez, “this is an interesting alliance between the Regional Government, entrepreneurs from the aquaculture world belonging to an indigenous community and two Faculties of the Universidad Austral de Chile. For us it is remarkable to be able to learn about experiences where science, knowledge and technology applied to the regional productive reality can generate relevant changes and transformations for the people who inhabit it” commented Martínez.

The director of the project valued the progress with this initiative to meet the main objective, which is to develop small-scale aquaculture in the Los Ríos region. “Seed collection is very important in crops because it is the base. For us it is essential that the juveniles are captured within the region, because if they are brought from other places they can bring red tide or other diseases and some other type of organism that could compete with the habitats of the organisms in the region,” he explained. ICML academic.

infrastructure

The engineer who thought of the best way for the seed collector was the academician Cristian Cifuentes, from the Institute of Naval and Maritime Sciences and director of the Tekya Nucleus of the UACh. For him, something different about this collector is that it fits the local context and the estuary itself, which are conditions of low depth, high salinity, lack of divers and small boats and, furthermore, that it can be easily removed from the water.

“The collectors created are operated from the surface, the work of divers is not needed, they can be moved easily, they can be lifted using compressed air. It is designed for localities such as those in shallow estuary areas”, explained the project engineer.

For Dr. José Garcés in oceanography, ICML academic and researcher at the Center for Dynamic Research of Marine Ecosystems, IDEAL, “the installation of sensors on the bottom was very important, to measure temperature, salinity and also the water level. With these oceanographic variables we were able to establish that there were salinity drops of more than one day and that due to the dynamics of the estuary, the salinity drop events should last longer on the surface. In addition, we measured the currents in the water column and were able to establish that the weakest currents existed in the deepest part of the bottom, so it was determined that the collector should be closest to the bottom”, explained the co-investigator of the project.

Sergio Mar Nahuelpal, a member of the Rayen Lafquén de Mehuín community, and in charge of the management of the crop concession in the area, “now we have valuable knowledge that we must put into practice. It is an opportunity that we have and that we are going to take advantage of”, commented one of the beneficiaries of the initiative.

From the UACh, through Miguel Cárcamo, project coordinator of the Department of Development and Innovation of the university, he valued projects like this, since they provide concrete solutions that the localities of the region have.

This summer the members of the project and the beneficiaries will be able to have clarity on the efficiency of the capture in terms of density, growth, yield and mortality of both species of mussels. Subsequently, they will generate economic indicators to establish the feasibility and/or profitability of establishing crops of both species based on the collection of local seeds.