This article seeks to show how the relationships between the different actors involved in the productive activity of fishing in Chile, during the 20th century, were modified by the introduction of capital as a new phenomenon favored by the State. These new relations took place within the framework of a tension between productivist and conservationist models on the part of the State and an industrial capital interested in the large-scale exploitation of the ocean, as well as in a concern for the environment that challenges the institutional framework and the environment resistance and adaptation of artisanal fishermen to these modifications.