Informe Final
Annual Progress Report N°3
Institución
Resumen
The COPAS Center suffered severe losses and damages due to the earthquake and tsunami of February 27th
2010. Some activities were redirected and recovery work was intensified. We are most grateful for the support
and financial help we have received from the national and international oceanographic community.
Despite the devastating events, the COPAS Sur-Austral program has devoted efforts to the major goals of the
Center. Research activities during the reported period focused on physical oceanography and numerical models,
baseline studies, carrying capacity, marine biosecurity, and new research for fisheries management.
Numerical hydrodynamic model (Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model) results from the Reloncaví fjord are very
encouraging and we are presently carrying out simulations in order to include different scenarios according to
typical conditions observed during the different seasons, wind conditions, river discharges, as well as extreme events of winds and river discharges to analyze the hydrodynamic response of the fjord to extreme weather events. Model results have been also used to study relevant processes in the Reloncaví fjord like flushing time for the different sub-basins in the interior of the fjord. We finished an observation program in the Aysén fjord and here we will also implement a similar model to the one in Reloncaví. Based on tide measurements we generated tide tables with sea level predictions for the mouth and head of the Reloncaví and Aysén fjords and results will
be disseminated through specific websites, like the existing one for the Reloncaví (www.reloncavi.udec.cl). We have made important advances in understanding structure, composition and distribution of plankton
communities (including harmful algae), seasonal cycle of primary production, carbon transfer within the pelagic food web in the Reloncaví, Puyuhuapi and Aysén fjords, the Moraleda Channel, and the area of Caleta Tortel;
some of our results have been directly transferred to the aquaculture industry. During the second semester of 2010, the analysis of data generated from a study centered on the Aysén fjord was completed, and produced estimates of the carrying capacity of this fjord, in terms of the maximum biomass and/or density of salmon that can be kept in a farm without substantially altering physical-chemical conditions in the water column surrounding the farm and/or in bottom waters. Additionally, simulations were conducted to assess the changes in carrying capacity that should be expected from changes in the orientation of farms
relative to the prevailing currents. Also, we participated together with CIEP and the Huinay Foundation in a regional study dealing with the environmental evaluation of 18 fish farms in Aysén region. This study was
supported by the national fishery agency (SERNAPESCA) with the aim of evaluating current benthic impact of salmon farms as well on the development of new protocols to facilitate the analysis of environmental reports by the auditing institutions (SERNAPESCA). This study also included a set of suggestions to improve current regulation and define new procedures and protocols to evaluate benthic impact under fish cages.
In fisheries management, we have strengthened our collaboration with IFOP by initiating joint studies on stock discrimination by means of otolith analysis, and by jointly developing new stock assessment tools for demersal
fishes. We have also strengthened interactions with the Fisheries Undersecretary (Subsecretaria de Pesca) providing them with new ideas on stock assessment research for the coming years.
In the new field of marine biosafety a patent application to the National Institute of Industrial Property has been
presented (CL162-2011) as a method for ISA virus concentration from water column. This method is being distributed to the aquaculture sector, and is part of a new proposal for the comparison of health and
environmental effects of net-cleaning strategies used in salmon-farming in the Aysén Region. During 2010 and early 2011, scientific results were communicated in the form of 113 presentations at national and international congresses, meetings and workshops; 40 of these presentations were developed exclusively