On July 2, 2016, SERNAPESCA officials supervised the Tubildad farming center, owned by Cermaq.

Supreme Court confirms fine applied to Cermaq

CHILE
Tuesday, July 23, 2019, 01:40 (GMT + 9)

The Supreme Court upheld a sentence imposing a fine of 500 UTM (monthly tax units) - CLP 4.5 million / USD 35,598) to the salmon company  Cermaq Chile S.A. due to infringement of the fisheries and aquaculture law, for not maintaining cleanliness in a farming center.

In a unanimous decision, the First Chamber of the highest court, composed of the ministers Guillermo Silva, Rosa Maria Maggi, Juan Eduardo Fuentes, Gloria Ana Chevesich and Andrea Muñoz, rejected the appeal against the sentence handed down by the Court of Appeals of Puerto Montt, which confirmed the sanction applied by the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (SERNAPESCA) to the company.

Location of Cermaq Tubildad farming center.

The sentence that had been challenged gave as evidence that on July 2, 2016, officials of the reporting service inspected the Tubildad farming center, owned by the defendant, whose concession area corresponds to 30,000 square meters, divided between cultivated areas and installed structures. The audit included a monitoring of the seabed, which covered 530 square meters, where the presence of solid waste and residues was detected, among them, plastic bags of fish food, without the complainant confirming that they had been dragged by the tides from other zones.

"... the truth is that the motivations and reasoning expressed in the contested judgment give an account of a correct determination of the evidentiary burdens and of the analysis of the test rendered, in accordance with the principles of logic, the established scientific knowledge and the maximum of experience, which led to the dismissal of each of the defenses raised, without aspects regarding the construction and application of judicial presumptions being susceptible to control in the head office of cassation, since it presupposes an own valuation exercise and exclusive of the instances, which prevents to alter the factual conclusions determined in the contested decisión," concludes the ruling.

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