Chile is the world's second largest salmon producer, with aquaculture concentrated in Patagonian fjords where welfare challenges include sea lice, disease, and environmental pressures.
Chilean farmed salmon welfare faces the same fundamental challenges as Norwegian farms — sea lice, crowding stress, slaughter welfare — but with additional pressures from less stringent regulation and more complex environmental dynamics in Patagonian fjords. The 2016 harmful algal bloom mass mortality event caused extreme welfare harms — millions of fish dying from oxygen depletion, toxin ingestion, and gill damage over days to weeks. Sea lice treatment practices in Chile have historically involved more chemical treatments than Norwegian farms, with associated handling and chemical stress. Consumer and retail pressure for welfare standards in Chilean sourcing is driving improvement, but the welfare regulatory gap between Chile and Norway remains significant.