The Santiago Times 4 Dec 07;
The proposal also aims to protect the current US$2 billion whale tourism industry, an industry directly benefiting Chile.
(Dec. 4, 2007) Environmentalists and four senators gathered outside the La Moneda presidential palace Monday morning to deliver a letter to President Michelle Bachelet proposing Chile’s territorial waters be protected as a whale sanctuary. Creation of the whale sanctuary would definitively put an end to whale hunting in Chile’s territorial waters.
Attending the event were the director of Chilean NGO Cetacean Conservation Center (CCC), Elsa Cabrera, as well as senators Aldo Prokurica (RN), Guido Girardi (PPD), Andrés Allamand (RN), and Dep. Fulvio Rossi (PS). The senators entered the Moneda to deliver the document to Bachelet’s office. They were followed by representatives from the CCC carrying signs and a life-size (7-meter long) model of a minke whale named “Santu.”
The letter was first proposed in October by the CCC, Ecoceanos Center, Chile’s National Confederation of Artesanal Fisherman (CONAPACH), and 15 other Latin American NGOs (ST, Oct. 17). It has since been signed by more than 90 conservation and tourism organizations in Chile and abroad.
Cetacean species in Chile are currently protected through 2025 via an administrative fishery measure.
But supporters of the proposal are seeking to achieve more definitive restrictions. The letter asks Bachelet to “enact a Presidential Decree proclaiming the Sea Territory and Exclusive Economic Zone (ZEE) of the Republic of Chile a sanctuary for the whale population, with the objective of definitively prohibiting scientific and commercial hunting operations in territorial waters, thus contributing in a decisive way to the global movement for conservation of endangered cetacean species and their marine ecosystem.”
Elsa Cabrera said the primary motive for the proposal is conservation.
“Chile has the responsibility to send a strong political signal to the international community regarding its commitment to the conservation and non-lethal use of these marine mammals by calling Chile’s waters a whale sanctuary,” she said.
She pointed out that the proposal also aims to protect the current US$2 billion whale tourism industry, an industry directly benefiting Chile.
The whale sanctuary initiative has taken on greater urgency in light of Japan’s recently announced whaling expedition in the Antarctic, Australia and New Zealand. The Japanese intend to “harvest” 1,035 whales, including 50 fin whales, 50 humpback whales and 935 minke whales. Although the IWC agreed to a moratorium on whale hunting in 1986, Japan has continued to hunt hundreds of whales every year as a “research project,” killing 10,500 of the large mammals under this pretext since 1987 (ST, Nov 21).
Japan’s announcement has sparked strong opposition within Chile, with a group of senators urging Bachelet to formally condemn the hunt. Not withstanding the “scientific research” orientation of Japan’s whale hunt, much of their catch is sold in the marketplace. All four senators present Monday morning expressed outrage at Japan’s false premises.
“It is clear there is no scientific interest here, nothing more than the pure barbarism of killing more than 1,000 innocent animals,” said Sen. Prokurica.
“This is a farce to cover the illegal killing of whales for food,” added Sen. Girardi. “A massive assassination with commercial intent.”
Supporters hope the whale initiative will become law before the 60th annual International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting to be held in Santiago in June 2008. Regarding the president’s reaction to the letter, Cabrera said, “A rejection of this initiative would be worrisome, as it may indicate a weakening of conservation policy and of the movement for the non-lethal use of cetaceans, which our country is promoting on an international level.”
By Alex Cacciari (editor@santiagotimes.cl)