Whale-watching tour operators from Latin America demand protection of whales

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

Whale-watching tours operators, guides, tourism professionals, and researchers from five Latin American countries have issued an urgent call to governments and international agreements to recognize the importance of this activity and protect it from the encroachment of whaling interests and other threats to whales arising from unsustainable ocean uses.

The Praia do Forte Declaration, signed by tourism professionals from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, and Uruguay, during a regional symposium organized by the Brazilian Humpback Whale Institute, highlights the importance of whale watching to the socio-economic well-being of hundreds of coastal communities around the developing world and the need to ensure the protection of whale populations and their environment in order for these benefits to continue.

The declaration denounces the pressure of whaling countries to resume large-scale commercial whaling, including current subsidies provided by these countries to whaling fleets, as in direct conflict with the interests of developing countries, and demands that governments act swiftly at the United Nations, the International Whaling Commission, the Convention on Migratory Species, and other relevant fora to advance full protection for whales and the development of their non-lethal use.

According to José Palazzo, one of the organizers of the symposium, “It is time for the non-extractive uses of marine wildlife, such as whale watching, to rise high on the agenda of governments and international treaties, replacing the minority interests which drive the continuation of anachronistic, uneconomical, and unnecessary activities such as whaling, most high-seas industrial fishing, and other threats to ocean ecosystems.”

Symposium participants also called for Latin governments to provide better support for capacity-building, regulation, and market promotion of whale watching in Latin America, where the activity has enormous potential for growth. It is estimated that whale watching generates some US$2 billion annually around the world, of which some US$280 million is in Latin countries.

PHOTO: Whale watching researcher, Rodrigo García Píngaro, from Uruguay, reads the Praia do Forte Declaration

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Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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