Where the swans are dying.

• Author: Stuparich, Ricardo Carrasco
• Position: Viewpoint

In Chile, a land of stunning glacial lakes and primeval forests, citizens and biologists are sounding an urgent alarm. Evidence is emerging that a population of about seven thousand black-necked swans in the Lakes Region's Cruces River Nature Sanctuary has been reduced by more than half in less than a year. The swans, normally seen with their mates and chicks in the river sanctuary beginning in October, have dispersed over larger areas this past year looking for food. Some fifteen swans a day, along with other aquatic birds, have been dying from starvation and disease.

These disturbing changes appear to be the consequence of wastewater being dumped into the Cruces River by a pulp plant that opened in early 2004. Local biologists believe the effluents are killing an aquatic plant that swans and other birds rely on for food. They also believe that contaminants from the plant may be causing neurological harm to the birds.

Jorge Ruiz, a veterinarian, ornithologist, and wildlife enthusiast from Valdivia, told Virginia Vidal of Argenpress: "We are very concerned about the drastic changes that have occurred in the sanctuary. Thousands of swans have left for other areas. People are seeing them everywhere looking for food. Others are dying every day in these wetlands. Though there has been no extensive census in the sanctuary, we can see a clear and dramatic reduction in the numbers of swans, and those that remain are severely undernourished. The same thing is happening to the coots, and it seems to me that other birds are being affected as well. Normally, after October, people can enjoy the sight of swan couples carrying their chicks on their backs."

Yet last year, Ruiz reports, not a single nest was sighted, let alone any chicks. The drastic change, he says, appears to be related to the death of thousands of hectares of Brazilian elodea (Egeria densa), an aquatic plant that is the primary nourishment for the birds.

While Ruiz is reluctant to lay blame before field studies are complete, it is clear, he says, that these events coincide with the opening of a pulp factory near Valdivia. "When the plant began to operate early this year and we began to breathe its foul-smelling, sulfuric emissions, we also began observing changes in the birds. The black-necked swans began to gather in large numbers in the southern area of the sanctuary, particularly on the Cayumapu River. A lot of people were marveling at the beautiful sight, but those of us who work in wildlife--especially the ornithologists--saw it as a first sign that something was going wrong."

Ruiz is not alone in pointing to the Celulosa Arauco pulp mill as the cause of the problem. Lucio Cuenca, representative of the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts (OLCA), concurs: "The...