The 2016 red tide crisis in southern Chile: Possible influence of the mass oceanic dumping of dead salmons.

In 2016, a massive harmful algal bloom (HAB) of Alexandrium catenella around Chiloé island caused one of the major socio-ecological crisis in Chilean history. This red tide occurred in two distinct pulses, the second, most anomalous, bursting with extreme toxicity on the Pacific coast, weeks after the highly controversial dumping off Chiloé of 4,700 t of rotting salmons, killed by a previous HAB of Pseudochattonella verruculosa. We study the transport of this pollution, analyzing the physical oceanographic conditions during and after the dumping.