Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Whale Watching on the Rise

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 1 2005 (IPS) - The July-November whale watching season has begun in Brazil, a tourist activity that is in its nascent stages but quickly growing. This year the northeastern state of Bahia will increase the number of embarkation points from three to five, in hopes of doubling the number of people going out in boats to see whales like the humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae), which gather there to reproduce. In the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, the attraction is the southern right whale (Eubalaena australis), which can be seen from the beaches, and whose population has been increasing eight percent a year here, says José Truda Palazzo, coordinator of a project to study and protect the species.

Worldwide, ecotourism moves a billion dollars a year, and serves as “a tool for conservation” and environmental education, according to Eduardo Camargo, of the Humpback Whale Institute. Brazil has protective laws, broad public knowledge and a growing whale population to draw many more tourists, he said.