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Ecotourism, which according to The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) is the “responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environment and improves the well being of local people,” has been gaining popularity since the 1990s.  In particular, whale watching is a growing facet of the ecotourism industry.

Last year, more than 13 million eco-tourists in 119 countries paid to see whales in their natural habitat, generating two billion of dollars, said Peter Garrett, the Australian Minister for Environmental Protection, during the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Agadir, Morocco on June 21-25, 2010. 

The commission began in 1946 to govern the conduct of whaling and to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks, thus making possible the orderly development of the whaling industry. Fourteen years ago, the IWC created a scientific work group dedicated to the observation of whales (“whale watching”), which allows tourists to observe whales from a boat.

According to the first study on this issue, undergone by the Fisheries Center of the University of British Columbia (Canada), whale watching could generate two billion dollars per year and create 19,000 jobs worldwide.

Latin America is very involved in the IWC: whale watching, which has been increasing more than 11% a year since the end of the 1990s (three times the world’s average increase rate), represents a business of 278 million dollars that attracts 1.5 million tourists.

“In the Valdez Peninsula (Patagonia, Argentina), more than 200,000 tourists whale watch between June and December”, said Roxana Schteinbarg, director of the Argentine Whale Conservation Institute. “This shows that we can have our whales and still benefit from them, without killing them” she added.

Schteinbarg said that the majority of the countries in the area adopted whale watching regulations. Hundreds of Latin-Americans and Caribbeans presented IWC with a declaration that demanded the suspension of commercial hunting and the respect for maintaining whale havens, as well as the creation of a new haven in the South Atlantic.

New Zealand, where tourists specifically come to watch blue whales, “produces more than 80 million of dollars with this activity” says Karena Lyons, member of the commission. “This guarantees a maximum gain for local communities and a minimum impact on whales.”

Recently, the IWC authorized a strategic plan for whale watching, which aims to regulate this activity and reduce the impact on whales.

According to Vincent Ridoux, member of the French delegation of the IWC, “The five-year strategic plan “should allow us to evaluate the harm caused in the different regions and the impacts of accumulating these harmful consequences.”

The plan should also benefit seaside communities in developing countries, especially in the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa, where many fisheries are in decline. In the Dominican Republic, 43 boats and 10 tour operators offer trips for more than 25, 000 tourists every year.