Whales produce millions of dollars without fishing

For countries that do not hunt, the whales that come to its shores has a value that is not measured in tons of meat, but in millions of tourists and billions of dollars.

Last year, more than 13 million onlookers watched them in 119 countries, generating U.S. $ 2,000 million, on Thursday reported Australian Ecology Minister, Peter Garrett, to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Agadir (southwestern Morocco) until Friday.

This organization founded in 1946 to regulate whaling is also the only one who manages the populations of these large whales.

For 14 years, created a working group of scientists dedicated to the "whale watching" or "whale watching, tourism in full expansion to admire the whales from a boat.

According to the first study on this subject, conducted by the Fisheries Center at the University of British Columbia (Canada), the observation of whales, the IWC euphemistically called "non-lethal use of whales" - could generate 3,000 million dollars annually and 24,000 jobs worldwide.

Latin America is very active in the CBI: the observation of whales, increasing more than 11% annually since the late 1990s, three times the world average, represents $ 278 million and attracts a million and a half amateur.

"On the Peninsula Valdes (Patagonia Argentina), over 200,000 tourists come to see the whales between June and December," said Roxana Schteinbarg, director of the Whale Conservation Institute in Buenos Aires. "There is no need to kill them to take advantage of them."

Most countries in the region, he added, observing adopted rules. To be heard, one hundred American and Caribbean operators presented at the initiative of Argentina, a statement to the CBI claiming to maintain the moratorium on commercial whaling, the enforcement of whale sanctuaries and the creation of a new sanctuary in South Atlantic.

In New Zealand, where he sails to see blue whales and sperm whales, "produces more than 80 million dollars," said Karena Lyons, a member of the delegation. "This ensures maximum benefit for local communities and a minimum effect on the whales".

On Thursday, the Commission gave its approval for a five-year strategic plan to observe the whales, whose objective is to frame the development of this activity and reduce impacts on cetaceans.

"The five-year plan estimated Ridoux Vincent, a French expert scientific committee of the CBI, should be possible to assess the discomfort in the different sites and the impacts of the accumulation of these problems."

It should also help the small teams in the best possible conditions. In the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic, with 25,000 tourists on board a season, is best placed.

The Pacific states are also great applicants and more than a dozen of them created whale sanctuaries.

"This activity could be a billionaire, estimated Sue Taei, the Pew Environment Group of Samoa. "But there is in Fiji and whale watching in Tonga, boats queuing because there are not enough whales due to intensive poaching led by the Russians."