Los Arrayanes (Chile) (AFP)

They brave the frozen waters of the Pacific for hours to extract heavy algae: the Lafkenches, Indians from southern Chile, perpetuate this artisanal harvest to obtain some additional income.

“I started collecting seaweed and shells at the age of 10”, says Lidia Caniulen, 50, who lives in the town of Carahue (south), where 1,120 Lafkenches live.

In his district of Los Arrayanes, 90% of the 40 families are dedicated to this artisanal fishing.

The Lafkenches belong to the Mapuche people, the majority indigenous community in Chile and above all present in the province of Araucania, 800 km south of Santiago.

Lafkenches means "people of the sea" or "people of the coast" in Mapundungu, the Mapuche language.

Few of the Lafkenches families now perpetuate the traditional way of life based on small-scale agriculture and the picking of different local seaweed.

Among the latter are the "cochayuyo" (Durvillaea antarctica), a tubular algae that can reach 15 m in length, or the "luche" (Pyropia sp), a red algae.

Lidia Caniculen says that her parents taught her how to interpret the moment when the moon announces a "small" sea to take advantage of low tide and improve the harvest.

While anyone couldn't stand spending five minutes in icy water, the Lafkenches, sometimes in thermal suits, spend hours fighting the waves to pick up the thick filaments of cochayuyo, this dark green algae, rich in iodine and typical of subantarctic seas.

"When I go into the water just like that, without a wetsuit and barefoot, I sometimes spend up to two hours to take out the cochayuyo," Lidia explains.

- Not so profitable -

"Cochayuyo is edible, it is a seaweed good for health because it contains a lot of iodine, it is good for the thyroid", she says, pointing out that these seaweeds are sold in China and in Japan for the confection. of soaps and shampoos.

With more than 4,500 kilometers of coastline, Chile is a major exporter of seafood. Each year, 6,000 tonnes of seaweed are exported to Asia for industrial uses, in the cosmetics, vegan food or food supplements.

But families who fish artisanally believe that this activity is not "so profitable" given the effort deployed.

"We don't have the money to buy fertilizers and seeds (to cultivate) and the algae help us," says Lidia Caniulen, who sells a kilo of seaweed for $ 1.3.

For the "locos" (Concholepas concholepas), a mollusk typical of the Chilean and Peruvian coasts, you have to spend more than two hours under water: "they are at the bottom and it is difficult to pick them up", says Lidia who can hope however to touch 20 dollars for a dozen shells.

Of his five children, only two continue the tradition.

"It's very hard, a lot of young people no longer do that", says the fifty-something who says she understands those who no longer want to brave treacherous and icy waters.

His son Javier Epullan, 26, came to El Salto beach, a 40-minute walk from Los Arrayanes, to remove algae.

Then "we cut them, we wait for them to turn yellow with dew or rainwater, so that we can wrap them up", he explains.

It takes strong arms and hands, and good legs to tear the huge cochayuyo stems from the waves, drag them to the shore, put them in the sun to dry them, collect the bundles and then climb the path to the sea. cliff.

Until 2015, the bales were transported on human backs, but the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture "donated an algae elevator", which made the journey less taxing, explains Javier Epullan , about a zip line installed on the side of a cliff.

The bales are then divided into bundles for sale to dealers in the area.

Between November and April, 2,000 to 3,000 kilos of algae are thus harvested.

© 2020 AFP